Discovery and Observation
The Jewel Box cluster was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille when he was in the Southern Hemisphere from 1751 to 1753. He saw the object as a nebulous cluster due to the small aperture of his telescope, but was the first to recognize it as consisting of multiple stars. The name "Jewel Box" comes from John Herschel's description of it:
"this cluster, though neither a large nor a rich one, is yet and extremely brilliant and beautiful object when viewed through an instrument of sufficient aperture to show distinctly the very different colour of its constituent stars, which give it the effect of a superb piece of fancy jewellery" —John Herschel,Herschel recorded the positions of 100 members of the cluster in 1834–1838.
Read more about this topic: Jewel Box (star Cluster)
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