The Polarissima Cluster (George Simon)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: NGC 188

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The Polarissima Cluster

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The Polarissima Cluster

The Latin word polarissima means "closest to the pole," and the open cluster NGC 188 does, indeed, lie within 5º of the North Celestial Pole. Its position on the sky is only one of several distinctive characteristics possessed by this object. To begin, it is extremely old for an open cluster. Since open cluster members are only loosely gravitationally bound to each other, open clusters tend to dissolve pretty quickly, as their stellar members move off in different directions under the gravitational influence of nearby non-member stars. The Polarissima Cluster, however, lies in splendid isolation above the Milky Way's galactic plane. Unperturbed by the gravitational tug of nearby stars, its members have hung together for at least 5 billion years, with at least one study placing the age of the cluster at 7 billion years. As a result of its longevity, NGC 188 comprises stars that are more evolved than is typically seen in open clusters.

Precisely because of its position above the galactic plane, deep images of NGC 188 show it swathed in IFN. Since my image is the product of only 5 hours of integration time, I was not sure whether I would be able to capture any of this galactic cirrus. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was, in fact, able to capture distinct indications of IFN around the cluster. I suspect that I would need to double the integration time in order to resolve more texture and detail in the cirrus; however, I am pleased with what I was able capture.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8488446
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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