NGC457 Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia
The Owl Cluster is a bright open star cluster located approximately 8,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. It has the designation NGC 457 in the New General Catalogue and is listed as Caldwell 13 in Sir Patrick Moore’s Caldwell catalogue.
The Owl Cluster is one of the finest telescope targets in the northern sky. It is easy to find because it appears in the region of Cassiopeia’s W. NGC 457 is also popularly known as the E. T. Cluster, Dragonfly Cluster, Kachina Doll Cluster, and Phi Cassiopeiae Cluster. I'll go with Owl Cluster as it is easier to spell.
The brightest members of the Owl Cluster are blue stars which are hot, massive, luminous stars that burn through their supply of fuel quickly and evolve into giants or supergiants within only a few million years. They have very short lives due to their high mass. The most massive of these stars will end their lives as supernovae, while others will cast away their outer layers to form planetary nebulae and slowly fade away as dim white dwarfs.
NGC 457 gets its most common nicknames – the Owl Cluster and the E.T. Cluster – because of two bright stars that appear in the same field. These two stars look like a pair of eyes, while the fainter stars form an outline of an owl - or the popular character E.T. from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film.
This image was taken by integrating 20 two-minute exposures using my C11 telescope. That is not long for astrophotography, but the camera sensor picks up light from the stars much faster than the faint glow from nebulae.
~~~~~
Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus 256G
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: ZWO OAG
Stacked from:
Lights 20 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flats 30 at 1.1 seconds gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.
Processed in PixInsight
Added captions in Photoshop CS4
NGC457 Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia
The Owl Cluster is a bright open star cluster located approximately 8,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. It has the designation NGC 457 in the New General Catalogue and is listed as Caldwell 13 in Sir Patrick Moore’s Caldwell catalogue.
The Owl Cluster is one of the finest telescope targets in the northern sky. It is easy to find because it appears in the region of Cassiopeia’s W. NGC 457 is also popularly known as the E. T. Cluster, Dragonfly Cluster, Kachina Doll Cluster, and Phi Cassiopeiae Cluster. I'll go with Owl Cluster as it is easier to spell.
The brightest members of the Owl Cluster are blue stars which are hot, massive, luminous stars that burn through their supply of fuel quickly and evolve into giants or supergiants within only a few million years. They have very short lives due to their high mass. The most massive of these stars will end their lives as supernovae, while others will cast away their outer layers to form planetary nebulae and slowly fade away as dim white dwarfs.
NGC 457 gets its most common nicknames – the Owl Cluster and the E.T. Cluster – because of two bright stars that appear in the same field. These two stars look like a pair of eyes, while the fainter stars form an outline of an owl - or the popular character E.T. from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film.
This image was taken by integrating 20 two-minute exposures using my C11 telescope. That is not long for astrophotography, but the camera sensor picks up light from the stars much faster than the faint glow from nebulae.
~~~~~
Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus 256G
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: ZWO OAG
Stacked from:
Lights 20 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flats 30 at 1.1 seconds gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.
Processed in PixInsight
Added captions in Photoshop CS4