ngc3293 and the Gabriela Mistral Nebula

This one is definitely going to be getting more subs. There's so much more hiding away in the background and more subs are going to bring it out.

NGC3293 is an open cluster situated with in the larger Carina Nebula Complex of gas and dust clouds and is around 9000ly (2750pc) in distance from Earth. The cluster is 26.4ly in diameter and contains over 100 stars, the brightest of which are blue supergiants of 6.5mag and 6.7mag. Most of its over 100 stars shine brighter than 14mag. The cluster is also notable for its pulsating red supergiant V361 Carinae. Studies of the stars have found that the cluster appears to have formed over at least a 15-20 million year period. The bluest of its stars appear to be around 6 million years old, whereas the redder, dimmer stars seem to be around 20 million years old. So, there was either a long continuous burst of star formation in the cluster, or, there was possibly two episodes of star formation. The cluster was discovered in 1751 by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaiile in his star survey from Sth Africa.

Surrounding the cluster is a vast field of gas and dust clouds associated with the Carina Nebula, much of which still remains hidden within the pic and I'll bring that out later with extra subs. In any case, the pic also contains the very prominent Gabriela Mistral Nebula (IC2359-Gum31), at the upper right of the pic. Located 7560ly (2317pc) from Earth, it lies between us and the cluster. Within Gabriela Mistral is another open star cluster, ngc3324. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.7mag and is around 6.754 million year old. Most of its stars are also hot and blue.

Pic was taken with t68 at the Bathurst Observatory (BAT-iTelescope Network), 15x60sec subs.
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