2003/06/30 by C. Boeche, R. Barbon, A. Henden +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Apparent magnitude #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Hertzsprung–Russell diagram #Hubble sequence #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Open cluster #Photometry (optics) #Star cluster #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030834
published in Astronomy and Astrophysics 406(3), 893-898 (EDP Sciences) · A&A, in press (compared with first submission to astro-ph, now Table 2 and Figure 4 are replaced with corrected versions)
arxiv created 2003/07/01 · openalex publication_date 2003/07/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic investigation of the poorly studied open cluster NGC 6738 has been performed in order to ascertain its real nature. NGC 6738 is definitely not a physical stellar ensemble: photometry does not show a defined mean sequence, proper motions and radial velocities are randomly distributed, spectro-photometric parallaxes range between 10 and 1600 pc, and the apparent luminosity function is identical to that of the surrounding field. NGC 6738 therefore appears to be an apparent concentration of a few bright stars projected on patchy background absorption.