NGC 3532, also known as the Wishing Well Cluster, is an open cluster situated in the southern hemisphere. It is located in the constellation Carina approximately 405 parsecs from Earth (Robichon et al., 2005). It is classified as an intermediate age cluster with an age of 300 Myr (Fritzewski et al., 2021). Concerning its history of being discovered, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first catalogued it in 1752, whereas the Hubble Space telescope first observed it in 1990. The cluster’s right ascension is 11h05m and its declination is -58°46’ (Verga, 2023).

In 2021, Fritzewski et al. conducted a study to investigate the rotational evolution of stars in NGC 3532. An interesting finding was that the researchers identified an extended slow rotator sequence that was similar to one previously identified in NGC 2516. Another study conducted by Dobbie et al. (2012) aimed to investigate new, faint white dwarf members of the intermediate open clusters NGC 3532 and NGC 2287. The researchers discovered three new white dwarfs within NGC 3532. They also found that the white dwarfs in the system had similar masses. In 2018, Fritzewski et al. wanted to provide a comprehensive and documented membership list for NGC 3532. The researchers found that NGC 3532 is one of the richest open clusters known to date, as evidenced by its distribution of members across its cluster sequence which includes a wide range of stellar types.

In my attempt to investigate the relationships between the colors, brightnesses, and the age and chemical composition of NGC 3532, I collected 15 images in filters B, V, and R with the PROMPT-MO-1 telescope through Skynet. The exposure time for the B-filter and V-filter lenses were 10.26 seconds, whereas the exposure time for the R-filter lens was 6.41. I used Afterglow to generate the photometry data and create a tri-color image. Moreover, I used Cluster Astromancer to remove the field stars and fit the isochrone model. Through these processes, I was able to determine the cluster’s distance (3.1), proper motion RA (-6.01) and Dec (2.24), metallicity (0.1), and interstellar reddening (0.39).

I decided to analyze this cluster due to it being one of the richest open clusters. This provided me with an immense amount of data to work with. However, processing all this data also proved to be quite a challenge. Similar to the findings of Fritzewski et al (2018), my analysis revealed that the cluster consists of a wide range of stars, including red giants and blue stragglers. Additionally, my isochrone fit was similar to that of the fit made by Chen et al. in 2023.

In conclusion, this cluster project was an effective way for me to practice my cluster analysis skills while learning more about one of the most prominent known clusters.