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NGC 602 is a young open cluster located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Located on the so called “Wing”, East of the SMC, NGC 602 is surrounded by a HII nebulosity (N90) and it is the nebula we can see on the lower left of this 1×2 mosaic. This Wing leads to the Magellanic Bridge, a neutral Hydrogen (HI) cloud connecting the SMC with the LMC. The Bridge is not to be mistaken for the much wider Magellanic Stream, also a HI cloud, connecting the LMC, the SMC and the Milky Way.
This two pane mosaic includes NGC 602, N90 as well as NGC 602c (the smaller, more compact open cluster located just below the center-left of the image), N89 (the larger, brighter HII region on the lower right, which surrounds the cluster Lindsay 104) and the bright HII region LHA 115-N 88, located on the far right of the image. A supernova remnant, SXP 1062, a very faint blue arc located just below-right of N90, lies just close to the lower border of the frame.
These nebulae are located also close and to the East of two well known SMC HII nebulae, NGC 460 and NGC 456 which, in their turn, are also to the East of the SMC (see wide field of this area, containing NGC 456, but not N90).
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): NGC 602, N90, N89, SXP 1062
Type: Emission Nebula, Cluster
RA: 01h 32m 38s
Dec: -73º 28’ 13”
Constellation: Hydrus
Size (arcmin): 4×4 (N90), 6×5 (N89)
Magnitude: 12.9
Distance: 200,000 ly
Image
Date: 2018-07-06 to 2018-07-30
Location: iTelescope.net, SSO near Coonabarabran, NSW Australia
Size (arcmin): 48×35
Telescope: Planewave CDK 20” f/6.8
Camera: SBIG STX16803 (4096x4096pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 35.5 hours (Ha5nm: 18.5h; OIII3nm: 14h; RGB: 3h)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2018