Thread: Ngc2362
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Old 28-12-2009, 10:52 PM
TrevorW
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Western Australia
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Ngc2362

Target: NGC2362
Camera: Canon 350d modified, Astronomik CLS clip filter
Exposure Capture: DLSR Focus,
Scope: GSO CF RC200
EFR: f/8
Mount: EQ6 Pro
Exposure Setting: Prime focus, 10 frame @ ISO800 ICNR off Custom WB
Exposures: 17 @ 360s lights taken between 8:00 and 10:00pm total 1hr 27/12/09
Seeing: waxing gibbous moon 80%, slight wind
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider using PHD with ED80
Focus: DSLR Focus Bahitov mask
Stacking: DSS with corresponding darks and flats
Processing: PS CS3 curves, levels, colour, noise, MaxDL for background flatten

Right Ascension 07 : 18.8 (h:m)
Declination -24 : 57 (deg:m)
Distance 5.0 (kly)
Visual Brightness 4.1 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 8 (arc min)


Discovered by Hodierna before 1654.
Independently redeiscovered by William Herschel in 1783.

The Tau Canis Majoris cluster, NGC 2362, was one of the discoveries of Giovanni Battista Hodierna, which he published in 1654. Nevertheless, as these observations were forgotten until their rediscovery in the early 1980s, this cluster escaped its rediscovery until it was eventually found by William Herschel on March 4, 1783 as his second discovery, and cataloged by him as H VII.17 based on his measurement of March 6, 1785.
Open cluster NGC 2362 contains about 60 stars, and with 25 million years, is quite young; it is still associated with nebulosity. The brightest star is Tau Canis Majoris, which is of magnitude 4.39 and spectral type O8 (Sky Catalog 2000). As it is the brighter component of a a spectroscopic binary, the mass of the system could be estimated at 40 to 50 solar masses. If, as it appears, this star is actually a member of this cluster at 5,000 light years distance, it is one of the most luminous supergiants known, at about absolute magnitude -7, or 50,000 solar luminosities.
The Sky Catalog 2000 classified this cluster as of Trumpler type I,3,p,n, taking into account that it is associated with a huge but faint diffuse nebula, which is 1.5 x 5 degrees in extension ! However, Burnham states that there's no nebulosity in the immediate neighborhood; this may be blown away by the enormous stellar wind of the young stars, above all Tau CMa.
Note: This image cropped due too severe reflection artifact on right side of image, artifact still apparent through main star, cause unknown
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (ngc2362 1hr 10f v pix cs3 v2 iisv1.jpg)
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Last edited by TrevorW; 04-01-2010 at 04:40 PM.
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