NGC 2331 (Cr 126, OCL-475) Open Cluster in Gemini
Located at: RA 07 hours 06 minutes 59 seconds, Dec +27 degrees 17 minutes 43 seconds
Size: 18' (19'); Magnitude: 8.5; Class: IV 2 m
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 Deep Sky filter, 180 minutes (18 x 10 minute subs), 01/29/2008; seeing 2.2-2.8 FWHM per CCDStack |
| Processing: |
CCDStack 1.3.2, Photoshop 7.0 |
| Location: |
Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s) |
| Notes: |
According to "Star Clusters", by Brent Archinal
and Steven Hynes, the size of this open cluster is 19 arc
minutes. From the NGC / IC Project: Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 2331 NGC 2331 = Cr 126 = OCL-475 = Lund 295 07 07 00 +27 15.7 Size 18 17.5": at 82x, very large scattered group of about 40 stars mag 10-14, 15' diameter. There is a small circle of 6 stars at the E end. - by Steve GottliebHistorical Research Notes / Correction for NGC 2331 NGC 2331 is a large, scattered cluster of pretty bright stars. There is a concentration of several stars on the southeast edge that attracted JH's attention enough that he took it as the position for the whole object. Thus, the position in the main table is about 8 arcmin northwest of the NGC place, copied directly from GC and JH. A curious footnote to this object is in the "Other Observers" column in the NGC: "Flamsteed." I do not know yet why Dreyer credited Flamsteed with the discovery -- there is no mention of the object in Kenneth Glyn Jones's fine book, "The Search for the Nebulae." According to Glyn Jones, Flamsteed did find several other objects in the area, including M41 and NGC 2244. But this cluster is missing from his catalogue and atlas. - Dr. Harold G. Corwin, Jr. |