![[Image: NGC689_884d-1.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i132.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fq9%2Fjryates%2FNGC689_884d-1.jpg)
NGC 689 and NGC 884, The Double Cluster, In Perseus
Image:
11x2.5 minutes for a total exposure time of 27.5 minutes at ISO 1600
Stacked and dark stubtracted in Deepsky Stacker, processed in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Equipment:
Hutech modified Canon T1i DSLR
200 mm f5 modified Konus Newtonian with Baader coma corrector
Losmandy G-11 with Gemini Go To with Losmandy heavy duty tripod
Orion Starshooter Autoguider on Orion 80 mm Short tube
From eso.org
http://www.eso.org/public/images/b02/ :
The famous Double Cluster in the constellation of Perseus consists of the star clusters h and chi Persei, which lie some 7,100 and 7,400 light-years away from Earth, respectively, and appear very close to each other on the sky.
These open clusters formed relatively recently in astronomical terms and move together through space, approaching us at a speed of roughly 80 000 kilometres per hour. They are both part of the so-called Perseus OB1 association, an assembly of extremely massive stars. The western component of the pair, h Persei, entry 689 in the New General Catalogue (NGC 689), is about 5.6 million years old, while Chi Persei (NGC 884) is closer to 3.6 million years old.
Easy to spot in the northern winter sky between the constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia, the Double Cluster is a favourite of amateur astronomers. The clusters are dominated by bright blue stars and, speckled with a few fine orange stars, make a spectacular sight in the night sky, especially through binoculars.
The ancients also admired the Double Cluster, and the Greek astronomer Hipparcos first catalogued it in 130 BC.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
