Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Jewel Box

The great variety of star colors in this open cluster underlies its name:
The Jewel Box.
This Jewel Box lies about 6,400 light-years away, so the light that we see today was emitted from the cluster before even the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built(!!!!). The Jewel Box spans about 20 light-years, and can be seen with binoculars towards the southern constellation of the cross (Crux).