Two open clusters in Perseus
This beautiful pair of star clusters is quite easy to see with the naked eye in the northern skies during the fall and winter months. The two clusters appear as a single elongated fuzzy patch. With binoculars, the clusters become many pinpoints of light in two dense groups. Through a telescope at low power, hundreds of stars can be seen in each of the two clusters. Several of the brightest stars, which are red giants, have an orange tint both visually and in this photograph.
NGC 869:
| Magnitude | 4.3 |
| Apparent Size | 30' |
| Distance (light yrs) | 6,800 |
| Right Ascension | 02:19.0 |
| Declination | +57.09 |
NGC 884:
| Magnitude | 4.4 |
| Apparent Size | 30' |
| Distance (light yrs) | 7,400 |
| Right Ascension | 02:22.0 |
| Declination | +57 08 |
Image details: A mosaic of two images, each based on exposure times of 10 minutes each of luminance, red, green, and blue, taken with an SBIG STF-8300M imager and a 14" Meade LX850 telescope at f/5.5.
October 2023