Most amateur astronomers have heard of such beautiful open star clusters as the Pleiades, Hyades and the Beehive. Yet fewer know about the Coat Hanger. But if you turn your binoculars to the region of the sky roughly halfway between the bright stars Vega and Altair and you will discover this intriguing group of stars for yourself.

For some reason that I have never been able to fathom, the Coat Hanger Cluster is rarely mentioned, if at all, in most popular astronomy books. Yet, it is the brightest of all the star clusters in this part of the sky!

I accidentally stumbled across it more than 30 years ago while sweeping up and down the Milky Way with 7 x 35 binoculars. Actually, my original impression of it of it resembled some sort of a ladle (and since I was visiting my Aunt Irma when I made the discovery, I unofficially christened it "Irma's Ladle").

Others, have seen it as a rather curious grouping of about a dozen tiny stars looking very much like an inverted coat hanger. However . . . it's really a proper coat hanger only for Southern Hemisphere observers, where it appears right side up.

Under a clear, dark sky you might even perceive it with the naked eye as a fuzzy patch of light. This is one object that is best suited for your binoculars; even a small telescope with low power will provide too much magnification and will cause the stars to appear too widely spaced apart.

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