- NGC 2281
NGC 2281 is a small, relatively bright open cluster lying outside the stream of the Winter Milky Way along the eastern edge of the constellation Auriga. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1788. Visually, it has a diameter of around 25 arc-min and a magnitude of 5.4, making it just visible to the naked eye under dark sky conditions. It lies at a distance of around 1800 LY and contains 119 member stars. The age of the cluster is estimated to be around 300 million years.
If the brighter stars in the cluster look a bit "bloated" in my image, it is largely due to the fact that many are double or multiple systems. NGC 2281 has a large percentage (greater than 25%) of its brighter members as double or multiple stars. The combined masses of these systems help keep them close to the center of the cluster. Single stars, with their lower masses, tend to drift away from the cluster over time.
|