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Date: | 03.02.02 | Time: | 21:11 UT | Exposure: | 25 min |
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Field of View: | 4.5o x 6.8o | Emulsion: | Kodak Ektachrome 200/400 | Filter: | none |
Instrument: | f=300mm 1/4.5 | Place: | Römerstein, Alb | Observer: | Till Credner |
Just 4 degrees south of Sirius lies the splendid open star cluster M 41 (NGC 2287). Under good sky conditions you might catch it with your naked eyes as a nebulous patch. And with a pair of binoculars it is resolved into an impressive group of stars (however, using a telescope at higher magnification does not show the cluster well since it is a quite loose concentration of stars). M 41 is believed to have a distance of 2400 lightyears and an age of about 240 million years. Therefore M 41 lies about 280 times far away in the background of our stellar neighbor Sirius.
See also: