It’s been a bit quiet lately but, at last, a new image 🙂
You’ve heard of 4 weddings and a funeral – well this is 5 clusters and a nebula!
This is the M103 region in Cassiopeia, and it is very rich in open star clusters as you can see.
The bright star at bottom right is Ruchbah, one of the main stars that form the “W” of Cassiopeia. The open cluster immediately to the left is M103, in the 11 O’Clock direction from M103 is little Trumpler 1. In the 10 O’Clock direction from Trumpler 1 we have NGC654. Drop down below NGC654 to find NGC663.
Finally, in the 5 O’Clock direction from NGC663 we find NGC659. But that’s not the lot in this very active frame. Look towards the top right hand corner and you will see the red glow of a faint emission nebula – this is SH2-187.
All this in a single Sky 90/SXVF-M25C frame of 3.33 by 2.22 degrees. This image was taken on the night of Tuesday 11th September 2007, and is composed of 43 sub-exposures at 4 minutes per sub, giving a total exposure time of 172 minutes or 8 minutes short of 3 hours.
