M103, NGC 581
noirlab_noao-m103 June 30th, 2020
Credit: Hillary Mathis, N.A.Sharp/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
The irregular star cluster M103, or NGC581, is a distant cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. One of the more remote open clusters, at about 8000 light-years, M103s relatively small angular size still corresponds to a sizable 14 light-year diameter (this image is only 8.6 arc minutes across). The bright binary (upper right, NW) is not part of the cluster. M103 may be over 20 million years old (there seems to be some dispute over its actual age). M103 is one of the 'extra' objects added from Méchain's observations but not actually observed by Messier. This true-color picture was created from fifteen images taken in the BVR pass-bands at the Kitt Peak National Observatory's 2.1-meter telescope, during the night of December 24th 2000 (yes, Christmas Eve).
Provider: NOIRLab
Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-m103/
Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- noao-m103
- Subject Category
- Subject Name
- M103, NGC 581
- Credits
- Hillary Mathis, N.A.Sharp/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
- Release Date
- 2020-06-30T21:53:14
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-m103/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope, KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope, KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope
- Instrument
- None, None, None
- Color Assignment
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- R, V, B
- Central Wavelength
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- None, None, None
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 23.38872345, 60.67452238
- Reference Dimension
- 1700.0, 1700.0
- Reference Pixel
- 605.6335297, 998.2213097
- Scale
- -8.45e-05, 8.45e-05
- Rotation
- 2.828440407
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- NSF's NOIRLab
- URL
- https://noirlab.edu
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- 950 North Cherry Ave.
- City
- Tucson
- State/Province
- AZ
- Postal Code
- 85719
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- NSF's NOIRLab
- Publisher ID
- noirlab
- Resource ID
- noao-m103
- Resource URL
- http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noao-m103.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2024-10-02T11:52:35.077317
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
