SCYON Abstract

Received on October 23 2006

The absolute motion of the peculiar cluster NGC6791

AuthorsL.R. Bedin (1), G. Piotto (2), G. Carraro (2), I.R. King (3), and J. Anderson (4)
Affiliation
(1) E.S.O.-Garching
(2) Univ. PD
(3) Univ. of Washington
(4) Rice Univ. Houston
To appear inAstronomy & Astrophysics Letters
Contactlbedin@eso.org
URLhttp://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0610546
Links NGC 6791

Abstract

We present improved values of the three components of the absolute space velocity of the open cluster NGC6791. One HST ACS/WFC field with two-epoch observations provides astrometric measurements of objects in a field containing the cluster center. Identification of 60 background galaxies with sharp nuclei allows us to determine an absolute reference point, and measure the absolute proper motion of the cluster. We find (μα cosδ, μδ)J2000.0 = (-0.57±0.13, -2.45±0.12)mas/yr, and adopt Vrad = -47.1±0.7km/s from the average of the published values. Assuming a Galactic potential, we calculate the Galactic orbit of the cluster for various assumed distances, and briefly discuss the implications on the nature and the origin of this peculiar cluster.