NGC869 NGC884 Double Cluster in Perseus_ZS81

The Perseus Double Cluster is a pair of star clusters located 7,100 and 7,400 lightyears away, but which appear right next to each other in the night sky.

 

The two clusters are h Persei, known as NGC 869 (the lower cluster in this image), and chi Persei, known as NGC 884 (the upper cluster). They are 5.6 million years old and 3.6 million years old, respectively. The two clusters are only hundreds of light years apart. Each cluster contains more than 300 blue-white supergiants.

 

In mythology, the Double Cluster represents the jewelled handle of Perseus’ sword, given to the hero by the gods, along with a shield and a helmet, to help him in his challenges.

 

Since this image only contains stars which are bright points of light I was able to use short exposures of 30 seconds to capture even the faintest of them. Any longer and the brightest stars would have been burnt out. This picture was formed by integrating 121 images taken thorough my William Optics Zenithstar 81 telescope.

 

 

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Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO

Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at gain 101, temperature -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focal reducer: William Optics 0.8x 2.00"

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam

Flat Panel: PegasusAstro Flatmaster250

 

Stacked from:

Lights 21 at 30s, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 30s, gain 101, temp -10C

Flats 30 at 14.1s, gain 101, temp -10C

DarkFlats 30 at 14.1s, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added Photoshop CS4

 

Done