STARRY'S ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY
The pictures posted are taken by myself from my Observatory in Coonabarabran using a digital SLR camera. I am happy to post astro pictures from others if they wish. Leave your email address in my guestbook.
NGC 3294 is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation Carina. It lies at a distance of 8500 lightyears away. It is a very young cluster at only 10 million years old. There is still nebulosity from the gas cloud the stars formed from (too faint for my scope). This will be soon swept away when the bright orange star goes supernova soon. This star is a red supergiant near the end of its life
This is an impressive cluster as it contains 40 stars greater than magnitude 7 and consists of blue, green, red, orange and white stars. Perhaps this should have been called the Jewel Box instead of Kappa Crucis.
This picture was taken at prime focus using a 14" Meade LX200GPS Telescope and a canon 300D camera near Coonabarabran NSW Australia.