Introduction:
Humanity was introduced to the Rip-Torn Cluster when it was first observed in 1826 by astronomer James Dunlop. It is called the Rip-Torn Cluster because of its torn-up appearance(O’Meara, 2013) and is more commonly known as IC 2714. The Cluster is located within the constellation Carina at Right Ascension: 11h17m29.5s and Declination: -62°43′08″. Due to its location in the southern hemisphere, IC 2714 is never visible from Saskatoon.
Observation:
Using the Prompt-5 telescope from the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network, I remotely collected five images of IC 2714 with each of the filters B, V, and R, for a total of 15 exposures. The exposure length of the images was approximately 65 seconds for the B filter, 35 seconds for the V filter, and 20 seconds for the R filter. I then used Afterglow to align and stack the 5 images of each filter, I used the stacked images to extract sources for photometry and later to create a color image of IC 2714.
Once the sources were extracted I used Afterglow to perform batch photometry on the three stacked images, I then uploaded the results to the Cluster Pro Plus software to create an HR diagram and isochrone model of the stars within IC 2714. In Cluster Pro Plus I first isolated IC 2714 in proper motion and distance, which gave me a proper motion estimate of -7.76 milliarcseconds per year(mas/year) of RA and 2.6 mas/year of DEC. Then I loaded the Gaia data for the cluster and plotted HR diagrams of M_RP vs BP-RP and M_H vs J-H.
Results:
Using Cluster Pro Plus I altered the parameters of the cluster until the isochrone model fit the data on both diagrams to get estimates for log(Age), reddening E(B-V), and metallicity. Doing so yielded a distance of 3 kiloparsecs, a log(Age) of 7.95, a reddening value of 0.61 magnitudes, and a metallicity of 0.7 solar metallicities. I also made a second set of HR diagrams using parameters from the Milky Way Star Clusters Catalog(MWSC), which gave me a distance estimate of 1.224 kiloparsecs, a log(Age) of 8.65, a reddening value of 0.416 magnitudes, and a metallicity of 0.01 solar metallicities. I used the estimated E(B-V) values to create de-reddened images of IC 2714 which are shown below along with the HR diagrams for both my parameters and the MWSC parameters.
A paper by Clariá et al (1994) investigated IC 2714 and found that it contains eleven red giant stars and one variable star. The paper also provided a distance of 1.32 kiloparsecs, a log(Age) of 8.5, a reddening value of 0.36 magnitudes, and a metallicity of -0.13 solar metallicities. I plotted the given values with Cluster Pro Plus and created a de-reddened image just as I did with the previous two parameter sets. Upon comparing the three sets of HR diagrams I believe that my estimates of the parameters are inaccurate since both the Clariá et al and the MWSC HR diagrams have isochrone models that fit the data better. I believe that the main issue with my parameters was that I estimated IC 2714 to be much further away than it actually is, which caused the data to be shifted higher on the graph than it should be.
Blue Stragglers:
The HR diagrams for both my estimates and the MWSC values showed the existence of a few blue stragglers within IC 2714, which I have confirmed through further research. A 2011 study found that the blue straggler stars in IC 2714 became blue stragglers after leaving the main sequence but before helium ignition (Lu Pin et al 2011).
Conclusion:
Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to research IC 2714 and learn about star clusters in the process. IC 2714 is also really cool to look at, and I am grateful that I had the chance to create such nice-looking color images.