Collinder 228

Open Cluster Collinder 228 (= C1041-597, perhaps Lacaille III.5), in Carina

[Cr 228, NOAO]
Right Ascension 10 : 43.0 (h:m)
Declination -60 : 01 (deg:m)
Distance 10.0 (kly)
Visual Brightness 4.4 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 14 (arc min)

Possibly discovered by Lacaille 1751-52. Discovered by Collinder 1931.

This cluster is situated and embedded within the southern part of the Eta Carinae, or Great Carina Nebula NGC 3372, about 25' south of the star Eta Carinae. It is probably composed of stars which recently formed from the material in the nebula. Its brightest star, HD 93206 or QZ Carinae, is an eclipsing variable, varying between visual magnitudes 6.16 and 6.49, the main component being of spectral type O9III or B0Ib:; it is approaching us at about 16 km/sec. The second brightest star, HD 93131, is of mag 6.49 and spectral type WN7. The cluster stars can be well recognized in the image in this page.

According to Ronald Stoyan of Germany, position and description given by Abbe Lacaille in his catalog indicate that he described this object as his "Nebulous Star" No. III.5, and not again the Great Carina Nebula. Up to this identification, Lacaille III.5 was sometimes considered an alternative observation of parts of III.6, see our discussion.

The image in this page was cropped from an image of great NGC 3372 which was obtained with the 0.6/0.9-meter Curtis/Schmidt Telescope of the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory situated in Chile and operated by NOAO, in 1975.
Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF

  • More information on the NGC 3372 image (N.A. Sharp, NOAO)

  • Jean-Claude Mermilliod's WEBDA cluster page for Collinder 228
  • SIMBAD Data of Collinder 228
  • Publications on Collinder 228 (NASA ADS)
  • Observing Reports for Collinder 228 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

    Hartmut Frommert
    Christine Kronberg
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    Last Modification: May 6, 2001