Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 188  ·  The star 2 UMi
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NGC188 peeks through the (molecular) clouds, Charles Bracken
NGC188 peeks through the (molecular) clouds
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Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC188 peeks through the (molecular) clouds, Charles Bracken
NGC188 peeks through the (molecular) clouds
Powered byPixInsight

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Description

NGC188, known as the Polarissima Cluster, sits just under five degrees from the pole. (Surprisingly, there are four NGC objects with higher declinations, but they are all small background galaxies.) It's nearly surrounded by IFN, but peeks through a hole in the dust from our perspective. The bright star here is 2 Ursae Minoris. The brighter patch of IFN you see here on the left is the lower part of the piece known as the Polaris Flare.NGC188 is a very old open cluster, at around 7 billion years in age. It’s not very bright, but it’s pretty in its own way, especially when seen in the context of the nearby IFN.

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NGC188 peeks through the (molecular) clouds, Charles Bracken