Starship Asterisk*

Thanks Guys. I'm not sure I'm much the wiser about my question, but i enjoyed the discussion. I did notice that the second link from Orin http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050617.html being a wider view did seem to show that we look at the SMC thru a drift of stars from our galaxy, so at least some of tho...

As a non expert I wondered if anyone can help with a question of understanding this fantastic picture? Of the stars we can see are all of them part of the cluster, and if not how can we tell which are and which aren't? With some APODs it's pretty clear, like NGC 7331 and Beyond of July 12th, where y...