Ancestors

Toot

Written by catherinerhyde on 2025-01-09 at 14:59

This is the open cluster NGC 1662 in Orion, under a pretty darned full moon. It has some weird artifacts in the background, which I don't understand, as this is a stars-only image with the background discarded. But if you don't zoom in too close it's a decent portrait of NGC 1662.

[#]space #astronomy #astrodon

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Descendants

Written by Bosque Bill on 2025-01-09 at 15:30

@catherinerhyde Just curious, and couldn't find the answer with a simple web search. If you have time...

Are clusters actually proximal (if that's the right term) or are they like constellations that only appear as if they are together.

Is NGC 1662 (and/or other open clusters) made up of only stars or are some of the objects distant galaxies? I assume someone knows these things and perhaps it's different for different clusters.

Thanks.

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Written by catherinerhyde on 2025-01-12 at 00:44

@bosquebill With the globulars, they are held together by gravity. If something that appears like a double star actually has one star more distant than the other, it's not considered a true double, and it will generally say so in what information you can find about it. I'm less sure of the open clusters. If some of the stars you see are not technically part of it by virtue of being farther away, I'm not sure if that keeps it from being considered a true open cluster. If any of the stars were galaxies, though, that could be found on a simple star map or by plate solving.

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Written by catherinerhyde on 2025-01-12 at 00:45

@bosquebill I hope that makes sense and helps. I'm really not an expert in all things astronomy and am judst sharing what I've picked up in the past six years or so.

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Written by Bosque Bill on 2025-01-12 at 13:31

@catherinerhyde Thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

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