Thread: Westerlund 2
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Old 27-04-2014, 09:22 AM
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Weltevreden SA (Dana)
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Location: Nieu Bethesda, Karoo, South Africa
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Wd 2 redux: central stars as we can see them

This post is a bit late out of the gate in the Wd 2 thread. I came across it in a 2004 APOD post about the HI region surrounding Wd 2. The image clearly shows the line of about 5 stars that Simmo and Paddy reported. The RCW 49 nebulosity isn't nearly as visible at the eyepiece, but does reveal as a large extended patch when using a UHC filter. I checked it out last night under good skies and it shows as a miniature, faded version of the APOD image from Spitzer.

A bit of research has revealed Westerlund 2 to be one of the hottest and most interesting clusters in our skies. I'm about to post a new thread in three sections about it in the Astronomy & Science list.
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