The Pleiades, M45 // siqi ding

M52: Open Cluster in Cassiopeia © JWST

Some of my favourite star clusters!

M8: An Open Cluster in the Lagoon - January 27th, 1996.

"The large majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for many young stars and hot gas. The Lagoon Nebulae is so large and bright it can be seen without a telescope. Formed only several million years ago in the nebula is the open cluster known as NGC 6530, whose young stars show their high temperature by their blue glow. The nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the left of the open cluster's center. A bright knot of gas and dust in the nebula's center is known as the Hourglass Nebula. Star formation continues in the the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many globules that exist there."

Gum 23

A large wedge shaped emission nebula, sliced by lanes of obscuring dust

A Nebula in Vela Also catalogued as RCW 38 Image exposure: 58 minutesImage Size:Size: 2.09° x 1.39°Image date:2024-04-11 I managed less than an hour of imaging data before the clouds came and put a stop to proceedings. This is an HII (ionised hydrogen) nebula with a very young star cluster emerging from its birthplace within the gas cloud. Gum 23 is described in Hartung’s Astronomical…

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M41

Constellation Canis Major.

Distance: 2.300 ly

Nov 21 2023 -Montcada i Reixac

The Pleiades star cluster, my personal favorite!

Fun fact: The car company Subaru’s name and logo represent The Pleiades!

This is the Jewel Box! 💎💎💎

Located in the southern constellation Crux and visible to the naked eye, the Jewel Box contains a diverse variety of blue and red stars. The unique name of “Jewel Box” was given by John Herschel, standing out amidst the nearby dark nebula named the Coal Sack! 💫💫💫

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary Two telescope on May 26th, 2022 at 2:22 UTC.

Pictures taken from the AU Observatory during lab last week!

The Double Cluster in Perseus consists of two open star clusters near each other on the sky’s dome. Amateur astronomers know them as h and Chi Persei. The two clusters reside in the northern part of the constellation Perseus, quite close to the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. If you have a dark sky and find Cassiopeia – which is easy, because the constellation has a distinctive M or W shape – be sure to look for Perseus, too. Then just scan between the two constellations with your binoculars for two glittering groups of stars. The Double Cluster – a breathtaking pair of open clusters, each containing supergiant suns – will be there.

#SomewhereDeepInTheNight "This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The Pleiades are an open cluster easily visible to the naked eye. The cluster is dominated by several hot, luminous and massive stars. The blue nebulosity surrounding the brightest stars are due to blue light from the stars scattering off of dust grains in the interstellar gas between us and the stars. The cluster is also known as the 'Seven Sisters'. And in Japan it is called Subaru. " NOIRLab

The Double Cluster: χ Persei (NGC 884, top) and h Persei (NGC 869, bottom) // Willem Witteveen

h Persei open cluster

Christmas tree cluster

In the Center of 30 Doradus - May 24th, 1996.

"In the center of 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. The center of this cluster, known as R136, is boxed in the upper right portion of the above picture. The gas and dust filling the rest of the picture is predominantly ionised hydrogen from the emission nebula 30 Doradus. R136 is composed of thousands of hot blue stars, some about 50 times more massive than our Sun. 30 Doradus and R136 lie in the LMC - a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. Although the ages of stars in R136 cause it to be best described as an open cluster, R136's density will likely make it a low mass globular cluster in a few billion years."

Seagull Nebula

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's an enormous cloud of ionised hydrogen gas!

IC 2177 A Bright Nebula in Monoceros Image exposure:120 minutesImage Size:Size: 2.11° x 1.39°Image dates:2024-04-06 It’s a bit of a stretch but I guess, if you look hard enough, it does look a little bit like a bird or a plane flying overhead, although it seems more like a bat to me. When the shape began to emerge as I began to live-stack this image, I thought I’d made a mistake and was…

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