Conditions : clear skies, moon not yet risen. Observed from approx 9pm to 10pm.
Tried for the 3rd or 4th time to try and locate the M37 open cluster in Auriga, hoping to take advantage of the darker skies. It paid off. After spending some time trying to locate by star hopping Theta Aurigae, I finally thought to revert to the finderscope. M37 was just visible through the 50mm finderscope as a hazy milky patch making location much easier (and indeed this along with M36 and M38 are all plainly visible in 50mm binoculars).
At x40 power, M37 shows as a milky patch, this time with a slight shimmer. A few of the brighter stars can be seen individually, especially when using averted vision. Overall the cluster appears quite widespread, perhaps 1/4 of the field of view (approx 20′).
At x100 power, more individual stars can be seen, and the hazy nebulosity is still apparent. The overall shape appears to be that of a flying bird with wings spread, made of brighter stars with nebulosity inbetween.
When comparing with nearby M36, M36 is much less nebulous and more dispersed – some bright stars with much dark space inbetween. Being smaller and less bright than M37 it is curious I have only been able to find M36 in the past and not M37, although this may be because the brightness is spread quite thinly (via the nebulosity) in M37.
I was also able to locate the nearby M38 open cluster. At x100 power this forms a quite distinctive X shape, with a central star. Like M36 it is fairly dispersed. It is arranged over about 50% of the field of view, so about 15′ across. Whilst the individual stars are quite bright they are well dispersed and this cluster would be easily missed.