The only way to change the luminosity of galaxies is to use the same commands as are used for changing the brightness of the stars: [ and ] (there are corresponding script and menu commands)
If the cluster is close enough (within 64K LY of Earth), you can use Rassilon's Cluster Generator to create a grouping of stars at its location. See the thread
http://63.224.48.65/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1320
The Cluster Generator requires Celestia v1.2.5pre7 or later. It uses some features that aren't available in v1.2.4.
I hope this helps a little.