Target: IC2602
Camera: QHY8 OSC CCD
Exposure Capture: Maxim DL
Scope: SV ED80
Mount: G11-G2
Exposure Setting: Gain 5 Offset 117
Exposures: 6 x 900s total 1hr30m taken 26/03/2012 between 8:30pm and 11:30pm average FWMH was 4.05 (suburbs)
Seeing: Average fair bit of moisture in the air,
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider using PHD with 72mm WO Megrez
Focus: Bahlintov Mask
Stacking: DSS no flats etc
Processing: PS CS3
Info: Situated in the Carina
IC 2602 (and Caldwell 102) (also known as the Theta Carinae Cluster or Southern Pleiades) is an open cluster in the constellation Carina. It was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751 from South Africa. The cluster is at a distance of about 479 light-years away from Earth and can be seen with the naked eye. The Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) has an overall apparent magnitude of 1.9, which is 70% fainter than the Taurean Pleiades, and contains about 60 stars. Theta Carinae, the brightest star within the open cluster, is a third-magnitude star with an apparent magnitude of +2.74. All the other stars within the cluster are of the fifth magnitude and fainter. Like its northern counterpart in Taurus, the Southern Pleiades spans a sizeable area of sky, approximately 50 arcminutes, so it is best viewed with large binoculars or telescope with a wide-angle eyepiece. The cluster is thought to have the same age as the open cluster IC 2391, which has a lithium depletion boundary age of 50 million years old.
