Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  12 CMa  ·  HD48220  ·  HD48315  ·  HD48375  ·  HD48376  ·  HD48482  ·  HD48521  ·  HD48538  ·  HD48539  ·  HD48557  ·  HD48574  ·  HD48600  ·  HD48813  ·  HD48852  ·  HD48873  ·  HD48983  ·  HD48984  ·  HD49023  ·  HD49049  ·  HD49050  ·  HD49068  ·  HD49069  ·  HD49091  ·  HD49105  ·  HD49106  ·  HD49125  ·  HD49126  ·  HD49151  ·  HD49183  ·  HD49212  ·  And 18 more.
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M41 (Little Beehive Cluster), Joon Ren
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M41 (Little Beehive Cluster)

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M41 (Little Beehive Cluster), Joon Ren
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M41 (Little Beehive Cluster)

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Description

Visual observers tend to see curved lines in this cluster which is where it probably got its name. M41 covers the size of a full moon and lies fairly close to Sirius, the brightest star visible from Earth.

I just had to image this target as its one of my favorite clusters when observing. Calibration flats did not work properly so I had to make use of a synthetic flat between stacking and linear processing.

This cluster has an unusually large number of binaries (dual star systems) which I only realized after a saturation curve. The most obvious one is about 8 o’clock off the cluster's center where a blue and yellow star are touching each other. After checking Stellarium though, it seems all of the stars with mixed yellow-blue (paler yellow) colours are also binaries. Plus a few more which aren't distinguishable by colour. Apparently that's how spectroscopic binaries are found; through analysis of their light.

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M41 (Little Beehive Cluster), Joon Ren

In these public groups

Open Star Clusters
Cloudy Nights