MESSIER 67 

OPEN CLUSTER IN CANCER

 (Image Centred at ra 8h:50m / dec +11:49)

January 2015 - Home Backyard in Martinez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

Type: Open Cluster

Apparent Magnitude: 6.9

Apparent diameter: 30 arc minutes

Distance: 2800 light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

TELESCOPE: 8" Orion Optics UK Mirror with Televue Paracorr (1150 mm focal length)

CAMERA: QSI 583 WS

FILTERS: Baader LRGB Astronomik Hs 6 nm

SKY CONDITIONS: Urban Skies

EXPOSURES: LRGB (30,30,30,30,)

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Messier 67 is one off the oldest known open clusters, and by far the oldest of Messier's list. Following new estimations it has an age around 4 billion years old. It can be expected that M 67 will exist as a cluster for another 5 billion years. At the estimated distance of 2800 light years it would span across a distance of 12 light years. Usually open clusters get destructed much faster, but in this case its components are still grouped gathering more tan 500 stars.

Messier 67 was discovered in 1779 by German astronomer Johann Gootfried Koehler and independently rediscovered by Charles Messier on April the 6th of 1780.