Trying to locate a particular asterism

Stevo69 · #1 10-09-2007, 04:52 PM

Can anyone help me with this.

Many years ago I was shown a small asterism which was affectionately called "the five of diamonds", because it contained 5 faint stars in the form of the 5 diamonds on the playing card.

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From memory it was in the Carina-Crux-Centaurus area, and definitely a binocular object, guessing all mag 7-8.

Any help appreciated.

hoo roo,

Steve

erick (Eric) · #2 10-09-2007, 05:10 PM

The "Five of Diamonds" is part of the Southern Pleidaes

http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~ice2/06-preades-hp.jpg

"The Southern Pleiades (also known as the Theta Carinae Cluster, Open Cluster IC 2602, or IC 2602) is an open cluster in the Carina constellation. It was discovered by Nicolas Louis de 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."

Stevo69 · #3 10-09-2007, 05:26 PM

Thanks Eric, I was shown it over 15 years ago and I've been out of amateur astronomy since then. I'm still pretty scratchy.

erick (Eric) · #4 10-09-2007, 07:38 PM

Thanks for the question. I've looked at IC 2602 but haven't noticed that asterism - I had to Google it. I'll go looking for it now!

Stevo69 · #5 10-09-2007, 07:56 PM

I remember it quite prominently all those years ago in a pair of 10x50's. A quaint little asterism. I was also shown "The Duck" which is a large psuedo-constellation formed by in the same area, but taking up 1/2 the sky. It is in the similar style as "The Emu" in the Milky Way. "The Duck" uses several constellations in the southern sky and, from memory, looked like a duck with outstretched wings. I will make an attempted to find it soon.