Cr69 — Lambda Ori Cluster
Open Cluster in Orion
About
The Lambda Orionis Cluster, a young open cluster around the double star Meissa, roughly 1,000 to 1,300 light-years away by different estimates and about 5 million years old. A share of its low-mass stars and brown dwarfs carry disks, and Meissa is evaporating two of them. A vast ring of gas, Sh2-264, surrounds the whole cluster.
Imaging tips
- At 370–620 mm on APS-C (570–950 mm full frame) the 65′ cluster sits comfortably in the frame.
- The cluster itself is a broadband target. The Sh2-264 ring around it is an emission nebula that one source puts at 7° × 5°, far wider than this framing.
- For the ring, one imager used an 85 mm lens (12° × 8°): 22 × 600 s of Hα through a 6 nm filter plus 9 × 600 s of RGB, 310 minutes in all.
- Best in December; it peaks near 50° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 65′
- Magnitude
- 2.8
- Coordinates
- RA 5h 35.0m, Dec +9° 54′
- Framing, APS-C
- 370–620 mm
- Framing, full frame
- 570–950 mm
- Best months
- Dec
- Peak altitude
- 50° from 50°N, 65° from 35°N
Nearby
- Sh2-264 (Angelfish Nebula) · 2.0′ away