NGC 1502

NGC 1502 (also known as the Golden Harp Cluster^[6]) is a young^[7] open cluster of approximately 60^[3] stars in the constellation Camelopardalis, discovered by William Herschel on November 3, 1787.^[8] It has a visual magnitude of 6.0 and thus is dimly visible to the naked eye.^[3] This cluster is located at a distance of approximately 3,500 light years^[1][2] from the Sun, at the outer edge of the Cam OB1 association of co-moving stars, and is likely part of the Orion Arm.^[2] The asterism known as Kemble's Cascade appears to "flow" into NGC 1502, but this is just a chance alignment of stars.^[9]

The location of NGC 1502 (circled)
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Right ascension	04h 07m 48.96s[1]
Declination	+62° 19′ 55.2″[1]
Distance	3,452 ly (1,058.4 pc)[1] 3,643+313 −290 ly (1,117+96 −89 pc)[2]
Apparent magnitude (V)	6.0[3]
Apparent dimensions (V)	9.7′[1]
Physical characteristics
Radius	5.5 ly (1.7 pc)[4]
Estimated age	5 Myr[2]
Other designations	NGC 1502,[5] Cr 45
Associations
Constellation	Camelopardalis
See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters

NGC 1502 in infrared

The Trumpler class of NGC 1502 is II3p, indicating poorly populated cluster of stars (p) with a wide brightness range (3). The main sequence turnoff point is not well-defined, so the age estimates range from five to fifteen million years.^[7] It is heavily reddened due to interstellar dust.^[4] One of the brightest candidate members of the cluster is the eclipsing binary SZ Cam, which is a component of a visual double star ADS 2984.^[2] There are eleven variable stars and four candidate variables among the cluster members, including a β Cep, two periodic B-type variables, 2–3 eclipsing variables, and an RR Lyrae star.^[7] Five members of the cluster are chemically peculiar.^[10]

See also

• Alpha Camelopardalis, a runaway star possibly ejected from this cluster.^[7]