The Southern Pleiades - IC2602

[Ryderscope]

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.

Link to image on Astrobin here. (https://astrob.in/13prft/0/)
Click on image in Astrobin for higher resolution version.

Clear skies,
Rodney

[Tinderboxsky]

A lovely, colourful rendition of the Southern Pleiades and Mellote 101. It is another 10 degrees higher in the sky from here, just south of Hobart.

The combination of the two very different open clusters makes it one of my favourite open star cluster views when visual observing.

[multiweb]

Beautiful sharp and colorful starfield Rodney. One for the cool wall. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Very nice Rodney.
Don't see too many renditions of these objects so great to see something different. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Lovely Rod :thumbsup: shame they don't have the extensive dusty nebula association, like their Northern counterpart, still, the blue stars are striking :)

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Steve, Marc, Pete, Mike,

Thanks for the feedback. Yep, it was a good 'filler' shot to be sure and one that I could continue to grab data on during busy moon times.

Clear skies,
Rodney

[rustigsmed]

nice work Rodney, super sharp stars and great colour.
and nice to see a cluster for a change.

cheers

russ

[vlazg]

Very nice Rodney, clusters are awesome. :D

[Geoff45]

Nice contrasty colour Rodney, but the bright stars are a little overblown. Maybe a reduction in size but keeping the bright colour?

[Placidus]

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?

A great shot.

[Ryderscope]

Russell, George, Geoff, MnT,

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 :D

[Ryderscope]

Managed to grab the AAPOD for this image for July 1 (https://www.aapod2.com/blog/southern-pleiades-ic2602).

We are most pleased :D

[Andy01]

Well done, nicely composed and resolved Rodney, Tak sharp stars of course! :thumbsup:
(Now I see what the fuss is all about with these things!)

Have you considered portrait orientation, looks very dynamic. :)

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Andy, it’s good to get another visual perspective on things and the portrait orientation does work well.

Clear skies,
Rodney