NGC 2343 is an open cluster that is situated close to the celestial equator and therefore is visible from both the Northern and Southern parts of the hemisphere. It is in the Monoceros constellation, otherwise known as The Unicorn Constellation. This open cluster was discovered by William Herschel in the year 1785. The cluster is relatively young, only being roughly 100 million years old. The cluster was created by the nearby nebula, the Seagull Nebula.
In order to study and investigate NGC 2343 and discuss the relationships between the colours, brightness, age and chemical composition of the cluster as a whole, I collected 15 images in the R, B, and V filters with the Prompt5 telescope available in Skynet. The exposure times for each filter are different, with the R, B, and V filters being 32.26, 80.65, and 56.45 respectively. After obtaining the images, I then used Afterglow to create the colour image and Cluster Astromancer to find exact information regarding the cluster. After using Cluster Astromancer, I managed to obtain some basic information about the cluster.
Dereddened Image of NGC 2343
Reddened Image of NGC 2343
The Information Below was Obtained from Astromancer
| Number of stars: | 240 |
| Mass: | 1875 (solar) |
| Physical Radius: | 6.32 (ly) |
| Proper Motion RA: |
0.25 (mas/yr)
|
|
Proper Motion Dec:
|
-0.17 (mas/yr)
|
| Distance: |
1.01 (kpc)
|
|
Log Age:
|
8 log(yrs)
|
| Metallicity: | -0.25 (solar) |
| Reddening: | 0.29 (mag) |
Using the Clustermancer, I found out that the amount of the stars only amounted to 240, making it a fairly small cluster. As seen by the image above, the stars are mainly comprised of Blue Sequence Stars. The mass of the cluster itself further proves this. Blue sequence stars have much more mass than our sun, having upwards of 2 to 16 times more mass. The cluster is also 1.01 Kiloparcecs, or 3294.179 light years away from Earth. The cluster is also relatively young, being only 100 million years old.
RP vs BP-RP Graph
When creating the colour photo, the image was reddened. This is due to the nearby nebula that the star cluster was created by. After scouring the internet to find a potential answer to what nebula created the star cluster, I discovered that The Seagull Nebula created NGC 2343. Analyzing the cluster wasn’t a challenge for me, more so just confusing as all the other clusters I have examined have had more stars. In terms of difficulty examining this, it was pretty straightforward.
Creating the photo to using Clustermancer to analyze NGC 2343 with images I have observed was a fun, yet challenging experience to get used to. My data compared to Kharchenko et al (2013), who found the parameters, were different, however, it was not a big change. I feel mine was different because I used the observations that I had gotten from Skynet, my data was newer. It could also be due to a few errors I had created.
This analysis of NGC 2343 was a fun experience that I had the honour of doing. It reminds me that even in University work can still be enjoyable.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_2177
http://www.phys.ttu.edu/~ozprof/2343f.htm
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q611367
https://theskylive.com/sky/deepsky/ngc2343-object