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Aug. 6-7, 2022 - Location: Davis Mountains west of Fort Davis, TX Telescope: 10 in. RC Mount: Paramount MX Camera: Apogee Alta F8300M Exposure: Lum = 90 min. Bin 1x1 R G & B = 60 min. each Bin 2x2 - All 3 min. sub-exposures Click on the image below to view at higher resolution. |
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NGC 69401 is an open cluster in the constellation Vulpecula1 approximately 2,500 light-years1 distant. The age of the cluster has been estimated to be 770 million years3. The cluster spans1 about 25 arc-minutes which is almost the size of the full Moon. The stars of the cluster are somewhat scattered with non-member field stars visible between cluster stars. Using the planetarium program The Sky X, I identified the bright "red" star near the center of the image as HIP 101527. (FG Vulpeculae)5 The distance to this star is almost 8,000 light years6 which makes it a background star not associated as a cluster member. The bright blue stars in the image also are probably either foreground or background stars. A wide field image of the cluster may be viewed here. Soft X-ray sources in the cluster have been studied2 using the ROSAT4 space telescope. Four sources of these X-rays have been associated with the cluster. One additional source was associated with a K0 giant star which is a possible cluster member. References 1Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6940 2Soft Xrays - https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1997A%26A...326..608B 3Cluster Age -https://eddb.io/body/5702788 4ROSAT - https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rosat3.html 5FG Vulpeculae - https://www.universeguide.com/star/101527/fgvulpeculae 6 FG Vulpeculae Distance- https://www.universeguide.com/star/101527/fgvulpeculae#distance
Member of the Dark Sky Observatory Collaborative
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