Southern Pleiades (IC 2602)
Open Cluster IC 2602 (Caldwell 102) is one of the three major glows in the rich Carina Milky Way, the other two beeing NGC 3532 (Caldwell 91) and the Eta Carinae Nebula (Caldwell 92). Together with the dense starclouds of the attendant Milky Way, the sight of these three objects is without question the most stunning in the entire heavens. IC 2602 has some 10 stars shining at 6th magnitude or brighter, like the Pleiades. So the two clusters are really twins.
[description from O’Meara]
Details
Telescope:
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX III
Mount:
10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera:
QHY600M-PH
Filters:
Astrodon Gen2
Exposure:
LRGB 130:150:100:100 min.
Location:
San Pedro de Atacama — Chile
Author:
© Martin Rusterholz, Astrophotographer


Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics.
“Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”.
Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.