NGC 361 is an open cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 6, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "very very faint, pretty large, very little extended, very gradually brighter middle."[4] At an aperture of 31.0 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.24, but at this wavelength, it has 0.40 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.[2]
NGC 361 is about 8.1 billion years old. Its estimated mass is 2.15×105M☉, and its total luminosity is 1.04×105L☉, leading to a mass-to-luminosity ratio of 2.07 M☉/L☉.[2] All else equal, older star clusters have higher mass-to-luminosity ratios; that is, they have lower luminosities for the same mass.[2]
