NGC 2169 the 37 Cluster

avandonk · #1 15-02-2006, 12:50 AM

Out testing the autoguiding after some repairs and minor improvements and decided to image NGC 2169 as the Moon was up.This small cluster 7 arc min is in Orion at RA 06:08 (h:m) and Dec.+13:57 (deg:min). One pic full frame and the other a crop to show the asterism more clearly.

Canon 5DH 7X1min, TAL 200K 200mm F10.

Bert

iceman (Mike) · #2 15-02-2006, 05:52 AM

Nice one Bert.. saw this cluster in an 18" dob at IISAC, and was amazed how much it looked like the number 37

matt · #3 15-02-2006, 05:56 AM

Wow! That's cool. Would it be visible through an 8" scope? What mag those stars?

iceman (Mike) · #4 15-02-2006, 06:22 AM

Yes Matt, it would be easily. I don't know what mag they are but it's quite a bright cluster.

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #5 15-02-2006, 08:12 AM

Matt it is easily visible through an 8" scope, even with moon and light pollution.

matt · #6 15-02-2006, 08:17 AM

Thanks Andrew

I'm really keen to extend my viewing beyond planets and the most obvious DSOs... so it's great you guys are here to offer up these great objects and some advice

avandonk · #7 15-02-2006, 08:22 AM

The total mag is about 5.9 and the brightest star is 6.9, so it is easily visible in an 8" scope. I have wanted to image this little cluster since I saw it on APOD.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051118.html
more here
http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n2169.html

There was also some strongish wind last night which made accurate guiding difficult. The result is the star images are not quite round.

Bert

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #8 15-02-2006, 08:28 AM

Thanks for sharing those Bert, really impressive how they appear to make something that we see as something else. I wonder what other countries think of this object if they don't speak or know the english number system.

JohnH · #9 15-02-2006, 09:25 AM

Well in Roman Numerals it could be seen as XV = 15 ! Not sure what other counting symbols are in use out there beyond Arabic, for computer geeks I can think of Hex where it still show as 37 but now means 53(dec), in Octal 37 = 31(dec)...then it will be the other way up for the N.Hemisphere observers so it is LE...

ving (David) · #10 15-02-2006, 09:51 AM

I like this cluster, but have yet to view it visually...
thanks for sharing it with us