One of the good things about being located in southern latitudes is access to a fine range of clusters that are well placed to image and easily accessible for most of the night. IC2602 is circumpolar at our latitudes (33.5d south) which provides for plenty of opportunities to grab some data, even during busy moon times.
This image includes the Southern Pleiades (IC2602) and the open cluster Mellote 101 off to the left of the frame. I had to go hunting to find a catalogue reference for Mellote 101 which I did not recall seeing previously. Just proves that you learn something new every day (or night)
I think that these two open clusters make for a fine comparison between the very bold, hot blue/white stars of IC2602 and the more composed and discreet gathering of stars in Mellote 101.
What I particularly like: the contrast between the intense blue of the big ones and the more yellow colour of the general Milky Way stars. The sheer tonnage of the big ones.
Thinking about Geoff's comment, they are, perhaps 10,000 times brighter than the general background stars. It's pretty hard to show that with an 8 bits per channel monitor. So I think your approach is a fair one.
As you said, the contrast between the Jewel Box and the much fainter cluster is fascinating. One wonders why it is so much fainter? Further away, obscured by dust? Different birth environment?
Thanks for the comments and feedback. The discussion on the brightness of the cluster is an interesting one as I did spend some time looking very closely at this. The data kind of led me to this outcome because, as MnT noted, they stars in the cluster are very bright. They almost took off of there own accord during processing
