An investigation has been made of the central region of the cluster IC 2944. For about 70 stars UBV photometry has been made. For the brighter of those stars also Hβ has been measured. Slit spectra of intermediate dispersion (73 Å mm-1) have been made for the 40 brightest stars. Coudé spectra (12 Å mm-1) have been obtained for 8 stars. Fabry-Pérot measurements have been made in 5 points within the nebulosity. The number of blue stars is shown to be extremely high. Down to visual magnitude 11.5 the cluster seems to contain only O and B stars, the majority of spectral class earlier than B3. The Fabry-Pérot measurements give evidence of high internal gas motion. Evidently the gas is thin, visible only because of the great number of hot stars.

Details will be published elsewhere.