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TOPIC: NGC 299

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Nov 4 18:06 2016

PGC 3517848	Permalink

Hubble Takes Flight with the Toucan and the Cluster It may be famous for hosting spectacular sights such as the Tucana Dwarf Galaxy and 47 Tucanae, the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky, but the southern constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) also possesses a variety of unsung cosmic beauties. One such beauty is NGC 299, an open star cluster located within the Small Magellanic Cloud just under 200,000 light-years away. Open clusters such as this are collections of stars weakly bound by the shackles of gravity, all of which formed from the same massive molecular cloud of gas and dust. Because of this, all the stars have the same age and composition, but vary in their mass because they formed at different positions within the cloud. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Nov 4 18:04 2016

NGC 299	Permalink

NGC 299 (also Lindsay 49, ESO 051-SC 005, and PGC 3517848) is a magnitude +11.7 open star cluster located just under 200,000 light-years away within the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Toucan. The cluter was discovered by the British astronomer John Herschel using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) f/13 speculum reflector at Feldhausen, Cape Town, on the 12th August 1834. The astronomer James Dunlop may have observed this cluster on the 5th September 1826. Right ascension 00h 53m 24.74s, Declination -72° 11' 47.6" Read more __________________

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