IC 2602 (Southern Pleiades)

In June 2006, I spent some unforgettable nights at the Tivoli Astrofarm in Namibia, under some of the clearest skies on Earth. During that stay, I captured several images of the southern sky, one of them featuring the beautiful open cluster IC 2602, also known as the Southern Pleiades, located in the constellation Carina.

This brilliant cluster is easily visible to the naked eye and is composed of hot, young blue stars that shine brightly against the dark southern Milky Way background. Its resemblance to the more famous Pleiades in Taurus makes it a favorite among southern-sky observers.

The data calibration and registration were done using DeepSkyStacker, while the final image processing was performed in PixInsight.

The images were taken with the following equipment:

• Location: Tivoli, Namibia
• Telescope: Rubinar lens
• Focal length [mm]: 500
• Focal ratio: 5.6
• Mount: Vixen Atlux
• Camera: Canon 300 Da
• Filter: OSC
• Exposure time [min]: 16
• Resolution: 4.85″/px