NGC 2477

Open Cluster in Puppis

 (ra: 07:52.3 / dec -38:33)

February 2011, Complejo La Aldea in Villa de Merlo

San Luis, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Open Cluster

APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 5.8

SIZE: 27 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 4.2 light years

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

One of the finest of the galactic clusters in Puppis which were not cataloged by Charles Messier. This could be because it is situated in some degrees more to the south compared with M46. The cluster contains about 300 stars and its age is estimated in 700 million years. NGC 2477 is almost as extensive as the full Moon. A bit more dense than M46, it is a good target for medium to large telescopes. It was discovered by Albert Lacaille in 1751. The cluster is next to NGC 2451 a bigger (50 arc minutes) and brighter (2.8 magnitude), however I was planning to image with Philipp Keller 0.8 reducer field flattener

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron SCT 8" working at f8. TS 0.8x Philipp Keller SCT reducer flatener

MOUNT: Sky Watcher HEQ6

SKY CONDITIONS: Transparency and Seeing good

CAMERA: QSI 583 WS -10Cº

FILTERS: Astronomik Type 2, Ha 6 nm

EXPOSURES: LRGB (20,20,20,20) RGB binned 2x2

GUIDING: William Optics ZenithStar 66 f6. Starlight Xpress Lodestar Camera. AA 3.71 Control Camera Plug-in

PROCESSING: No darks, nor flats, nor offsets. Images Plus (Sigma Median Combination) Robert Vanderbei Richardson Lucy Deconvolution; NASA Photoshop Fits Liberator, Photoshop CS