This rarely mentioned Messier object looks like a diffuse, large spot even through the finderscope. On a low/moderate magnification a view of solid, dense open cluster appears in front of our eyes. A very nice member of the cluster can be found around 9' north from the middle of the cluster: a red giant of a color-index of 1.7, catalogued as HD 52938. With its 7.82 magnitude luminosity its also the brightest star of the cluster. Interestingly, because of its shiny red colour, I wouldn't think that this star is nearly 2 magnitudes brighter than the other stars in the centre of the cluster, which look like they're the brightest by far.