The small dense open cluster NGC2362 is located in Canis Major and contains about 60 stars.
It is relatively young, being only 25 million years old. The bright star in the center of the cluster is Tau Canis Majoris, which is a luminous type O supergiant shining at magnitude 4.39.
As the cluster lies at a distance of 5000 light years, it is one of the most luminous supergiants known, with an absolute magnitude of -7, or 50,000 times more luminous than our Sun.

OPTICS 10" Newtonian f/5.2
MOUNT Losmandy G11 equatorial
CAMERA Philips ToUCam Pro SC1 webcam
FILTERS None
EXPOSURE 60 x 21s
DATE/TIME 18/01/2006 12:18 UTC
LOCATION My backyard observatory in west Auckland, New Zealand