Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  M 23  ·  NGC 6494
M 23:  An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius, Fernando
M 23:  An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius
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M 23: An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius

M 23:  An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius, Fernando
M 23:  An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius
Powered byPixInsight

M 23: An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

M 23 is a glorious open cluster in Milk Way, in Sagittarius canstallation. Laying in an apparent diameter of 15 light years (27 arc-minutes), the cluster has about 150 members, with less than 10% chance of being "field stars".

However studies suggest that much more stars belong to M-23.

The hottest stars in M23 are of spectral type B9, the brightest star are of magnitude 9.21. The age of M23 has been estimated at 220 - 300 million years (Sky Catalog 2000).

The distance to Earth is about 2000 Light Years

Image:

Due to the claudy weather I decide to capture just a few frames, based on the S/N of one frame of 300 sec taken with my 120mm refractor.

L=5x300

R=5x300

G=4x300

B=7x300

Instruments:

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 120mm f/7

CCD: ST-8300M

CCD Guiding: Lodestar

Capture and guiding software: MaxIm DL

Mount: EQ-6 Pro

Processing: PixInsight

Bias, Darks and Flats applyed

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M 23:  An Open Cluster that Stands Out in Sagittarius, Fernando