Date: 22/02/14
Time: 7:30-10:30pm
Seeing: 8-9
Scope: sw 10" dobsonian
Eyepieces: 25, 12.5, 9, 6mm UO orthos (48x, 96x, 133x, 200x)
Object: Westerlund 2
Constellation: Carina
Mag: 10.5
Size: 2.0 arcmin
Notes: I found this object on Tuesday night and spent thurs as well as tonight studying it. On Tuesday what I thought to be an obscure object, that I probably wouldn't find, turned out to be actually quite interesting. It's a small cluster buried within the bright nebula NGC 3247. It is an elongated object much like the shape of an ice cream cone.
(Well to me at least anyway) it can be made out at low powers as a grey fuzzy however there is a little detail at 200x and it did seem that the centre of the object brightened. With averted vision it seemed that faint star or two could be just made out. Below I have included a drawing that I did tonight of roughly what could be seen at 200x through a 45 degree eyepiece.
What makes this object interesting is its stars contained within. This cluster contains some of the hottest, brightest and largest stars known. It has been fantastic reading. The X-ray photo below is from nasa but I think it was taken by Chandra which shows the cluster in detail.
Also there's some light reading included in regards to this cluster if your interested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerlund_2
Thanks for reading
Simmo
