Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Auriga (Aur)  ·  Contains:  Extremely wide field
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NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster, hughsie
NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster
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NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster

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NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster, hughsie
NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster

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Description

NGC 2281 also known as the Broken Heart Cluster is a never going to win any prizes for best open star cluster when put up against the Beehive Cluster or Pleaides.

Located in Auriga and to the West of Gemini, NGC 2281 is probably a minor player when compared to the deep sky objects in the vicinity such as the Flaming Star Nebula, M36, M37 and M38. For me though it is all in the name and it is at least a star cluster with an alias that actually describes what it looks like.

The cluster itself will remain memorable to me as the first object I imaged with my ZWO ASI294mc Pro Cooled camera. It is also quite remarkable as having no previous experience of astro cameras I completely got the back focus wrong. As a result the photo is heavily cropped to remove the effects of field curvature but luckily I got the cluster centred and captured a flat image.

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Revisions

  • NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster, hughsie
    Original
  • Final
    NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster, hughsie
    B

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NGC 2281 - Broken Heart Cluster, hughsie

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Star Clusters