NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3293 13.1" (2/18/04 - Costa Rica): stunningly rich and bright open cluster, situated 2¡ northwest of the Eta Carina nebula. At 105x, 60-70 stars are packed into 7' with many of the stars seemingly arranged in concentric circles! Appears compact and well-detached, even in a rich Carina star field. A striking linear trio of mag 6.5-7.5 stars (total length 1.5') runs SW-NE to the center including an orange star (mag 7.2 supergiant V361 Car) on the SW end, a blue star and a white star at the center (mag 6.5 B0-type supergiant HD 91969). This young cluster is one of the top southern clusters and a worthy rival in beauty to the Jewel Box. Visible naked-eye and resolved in the 9x50 finder. The large HII region/cluster NGC 3324 lies 30' SSE. 12" (6/29/02 - Bargo, Australia): this very rich, young cluster is situated just NW of the Eta Carina complex and is one of the top open clusters in the southern sky. It is bright, compact and very rich with a half-dozen mag 6-8 stars over a rich background of dozens of mag 10-13 star in a 10' diameter. Appears somewhat similar to the Jewel Box including a mag 7 reddish supergiant, but with even a more compact appearance. The listed 40' diameter is much larger than the visual impression.