Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr)  ·  Contains:  M 73  ·  NGC 6994
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M73 - really Charles...!!, Geof Lewis
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M73 - really Charles...!!

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M73 - really Charles...!!, Geof Lewis
Powered byPixInsight

M73 - really Charles...!!

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Description

It had to be done for my Messier collection, but really Charles, what were you thinking..!!?

For some time debate raged over whether this is an open cluster as described by Messier, or just an asterism of 4 stars. As recently as 2002 M. Odenkirchen and C. Soubiran published an analysis of the high resolution spectra of the six brightest stars within 6 arcmin of the central position of M73 in which they demonstrated that the distances from the Earth to the six stars were very different from each other, and the stars were moving in different directions. Therefore, they concluded that the stars were only an asterism.

Anyway, box ticked and I very much doubt that I'll ever image this one again....!!

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M73 - really Charles...!!, Geof Lewis