Teutsch 8, Open Star Cluster
Teutsch 8 seems to be not an asterism but actually a star cluster. The distance for some of the stars can be determined with the help of
the astrometry satellite GAIA to 6,400 light years. With an apparent extent of 0.9 arcminutes this results in a true diameter of the cluster
of 1.8 lightyears. In this area there are only a few stars, which glow bluish and whitish on color images. So the cluster cannot be very
old yet. The brightest stars reach about 11mag and have therefore a luminosity of about 100 suns.
The brightest star (HD 227247) seems to be not part of the cluster, because its parallax is a bit larger than the parallax of the other stars
and therefore it seems to be about 600 lightyears ahead of the cluster.
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In a 20 inch telescope "Teutsch 8" appears rather unspectacular. One finds 10 stars grouped around a brighter one. The cluster appears
small, of rectangular shape and is completely resolved. A background glow is not perceptible.
