Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 1805
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Open Cluster, Melotte 15, flyingairedale
Open Cluster, Melotte 15
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Open Cluster, Melotte 15

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Open Cluster, Melotte 15, flyingairedale
Open Cluster, Melotte 15
Powered byPixInsight

Open Cluster, Melotte 15

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Description

If you've observed or seen a picture of IC 1805, a.k.a., the Heart Nebula, you've seen Melotte 15 . It's that star cluster in the center of IC 1805, surrounded by the bright glow of ionized gas and shadowy clouds of dust that are shaped by stellar winds and radiation from stars in the cluster. The cluster is fairly new on the cosmic time scale and contains several newborn stars. This was my first exposure to the Melotte Catalogue of Star Clusters and British astronomer, Philibert Jacques Melotte, who created this catalog in 1915 by studying photographic plates of the night sky. Since the catalog lists open and globular clusters, many entries also are found in the NGC and Messier catalogs.

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Open Cluster, Melotte 15, flyingairedale