IYA Live Telescope Today – NGC 2516 – “The Diamond Cluster”

Wow… If you had a chance to watch our live remote telescope today, then you were in for an awesome view. This was my first opportunity to call the shot as to where the telescope was aimed and I’ve always wanted to see NGC 2516 with my own eyes. Needless to say, despite small aperture and viewing with a remote camera, I wasn’t disappointed – I was blown away. Did we save a replay for you? Darn right we did…

The following factual information is a cut and paste from Wikipedia:

NGC 2516 – “The Diamond Cluster”: Constellation – CARINA

Southern open cluster NGC 2516, The Diamond Cluster, was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751-1752.

Called “The Diamond Cluster” because of its stellar clarity, the cluster itself is easily visible with the naked eye from dark skies but binoculars will yield a much better view.

The Diamond Cluster contains two beautiful 5th magnitude red giants and three double stars. A small telescope would be required to split the double stars. It contains about 100 stars that appear about the same size as a full moon.

NGC 2516 and the recently discovered nearby star cluster Mamajek 2 in Ophiuchus have similar age and metallicity. Recently, kinematic evidence was presented by E. Jilinksi and coauthors that suggests that these two stellar groups may have formed in the same star-forming complex some 135 million years ago.

Now that we’ve seen NGC 2516, did you happen to notice a little “artifact” that cruised through the picture right before the end? It would appear the southern hemisphere has its share of satellites, too! As always, you can visit the remote telescope by clicking on the IYA “LIVE Remote Cam” Logo to your right. We’ll be broadcasting whenever skies are clear and dark in Central Victoria! Enjoy…

(Information Source: Wikipedia)