M 41 (NGC 2287, Lund 256) Open Cluster in Canis Major
Located at: RA 06 hours 46 minutes 00 seconds, Dec -20 degrees 45 minutes 18 seconds
Size: 38' (39')*; Magnitude: 4.5; Class: I 3 r
North is up
West to the right
| Telescope: |
8" f5 Newtonian reflector |
| Camera: |
ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -25c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56 |
| Image: |
Lumicon Red filter, 170 minutes (17 x 10 minute subs) 3/13/2010; seeing 3.4-5.2 FWHM per CCDStack |
| Processing: |
CCDStack 1.6.1, Photoshop 7.0 |
| Location: |
Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s) |
| Notes:* |
M 41 is larger than my field of view (about 31' x 46') ... also very bad seeing again for this one (same as for M 47, taken a couple of days ago). Having a tough time adding these southerly winter Messier open clusters to my collection. Only good seeing was re-shoot of M 46 (which still needs more exposure). According to "Star Clusters", by Brent Archinal and Steven Hynes, the size of this open cluster is 39 arc minutes. From the NGC / IC Project: Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 2287 NGC 2287 = M41 = E557-SC14 = Cr 118 06 46 00 -20 45.3 V = 4.5; Size 38 8": ~60 stars mag 7-11.5, very bright, very large, very rich, includes 10 bright stars mag 7 and 8, many stars in curving rows and groups, includes several double stars. Located about 20' NW of mag 6.0 12 Canis Majoris. Naked-eye object in dark sky. Discovered by Flamsteed, 1702 or possibly earlier by Hodierna in 1654. Incorrect RA (1 tmin too large) in NGC, RNGC, NGC 2000. Misidentified as M14 in NGC (corrected in IC 1 notes). - by Steve Gottlieb |