A bit low in the sky for northern observers, still it is one of the more remarkable and bright open clusters. It may have been seen by Aristotle in 325 B.C. Located about 4 degrees nearly straight south of Sirius, it glows with an overall brightness of magnitude 4.3 over about 35 arc minutes of sky. That makes it a very nice binocular object, and under the right conditions is visible with the unaided eye. It's about 2300 light years away and spread over about 25 light years. It's about 200 million years old. There are about 100 members in the cluster, including several red giants., the brightest one is near the gravitational and visible center glowing at magnitude 7.

10" F6.3 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (1600mm F.L.) Modified Canon 300D camera with Baader coma corrector and IR-UV filter, placed at the scopes prime focus
6 photos aligned and averaged together, then brightness, color, and contrast enhanced. Click on photo above for a full frame full rez image.
Each photo, 150 seconds exposure at ISO 400