NGC 2302 is a young open cluster located in the constellation of Monoceros. NGC 2302 has a magnitude of 8.90 and because of its position on the celestial equator this cluster is partly visible in both hemispheres. This open cluster has actually been discovered multiple times and has also been cataloged as NGC 2299, It was discovered first by William Herschel in 1785 and listed as NGC 2302 and later discovered again and listed as NGC 2299. I found the redundancy to be very interesting but complicated my search for data.
In a comprehensive study of NGC 2302 Edgardo Costa (2015) and others determined that the open cluster has more than one population, along finding a remarkably spherical concentration of stars centred within the cluster with a radius of 2.5’. The study found that there was a complex reddening structure that complicated finding the centre of the cluster along with a cluster sequence of bright stars that made for a difficult analysis.
In order to study NGC 2302 and investigate the relationships between the colours, brightnesses, and the age and chemical composition of the cluster as a whole, I collected fifteen images total with the Prompt 5 telescope controlled by Skynet. Five images were taken with the B, V, and R filters with exposure durations of 60.98 seconds for B filter images, 36.59 seconds for V filter images, and 24.39 seconds for R filter images. I then processed the images using Afterglow to produce a colour image, before using batch photometry to produce usable data for Cluster Pro Plus to determine my clusters’ probable age, distance, proper motion, and chemical composition as well as other attributes. I found that my cluster had a motion in RA of -0.645 with a margin of error (-1.193, +1.193) and a motion in DEC of 0.495 with a margin of error (-1.558, +1.558).
(Pictured Above: the reddened image of NGC 2302(top) and the de reddened image of NGC 2302(bottom))
Unfortunately I had a difficult time matching my own Cluster Pro Graph to my cluster, and thus got poor results in my findings. Personally I found the log(year) age of my cluster to be 7.14, my distance to be 1.39 kiloparsecs with an error margin of 30%, with a metallicity of -1.11 solar and E(B-V) 0.45 mag. This is due to my cluster being home to at least two populations, which made finding my stars in the cluster difficult, as well as causing confusion as to where the centre of my cluster was located. Fortunately, I was able to get more accurate results using the MWSC catalog.
(Pictured Above: the figure(top) is my personal graphed data for NGC 2302, the figure (bottom) is the graph made using data from the MWSC catalog)
Using the official data provided by Kharchenko et al (2013) I found a distance of 1.33 kiloparsecs with an error margin of 30%, a log(year) age of 8.35, a metallicity of 0 solar and a E(B-V) of 0.2 mag. Compared to the official data my findings were not near as accurate as the information already known about the cluster.
While my own results with the cluster project may have come out a little half baked. The process was thoroughly endearing. I learned so much about data collection and interpretation, discovering how incredibly complicated star clusters and identification can be due to the few bright red stars that made identification of my own clusters age difficult as I attempted to narrow down which stars were outliers to the overall age of NGC 2302. One star in particular caused me a lot of trouble, you can see it as the singular yellow dot sitting outside of the rest of the stars on the charts for NGC 2302. Another complication came from finding the centre of my cluster among the batch photometry data after putting it into Cluster Pro Plus.
The whole process was very enlightening and entertaining to do, and I find myself wishing I could do it again to see how much I have improved since I began and whether or not I could produce more accurate results. This project has been a huge highlight of my year and has inspired me to continue looking into astronomy as a whole.