This pretty little open cluster in the constellation of Canis Major was first seen in 1654 by the Italian scientist and priest Giovanni Battista Hodierna.
Its apparent diameter of 8 arcmin. and the brigtness of 3.8mag makes it an very easy object for even smaller telescopes. Its real distance measures about 5000 light-years.
It is embedded in clouds of interstallar dust and gases,very well shown by a picture of the Spitzer-IR-telescope.
position (epoch 2000):
Ra.: 07h 18m 41,5s
Decl.: -24° 57′ 15
image data:
RGB(120-120-120min),a total of 6.0 hours
north is up
80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain
FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB Gen-II filters
Prompt 7 CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled
image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken
this picture shows NGC2362 in the complete FOV we can get with our setup: 22.5 x 22.5 arcminutes!
For full resolution click HERE
here you can look at the picture at a higher magnification: