NGC 884 and NGC 869, the Double Cluster

Constellations: Perseus

NGC 884 is an open cluster located in the constellation of Cepheus. It is the easternmost of the Double Cluster with NGC 869. These clusters are at a distance of 7’460 Ly from Earth. The small open cluster on the left of the image is NGC 957. Link to interactive sky chart.

Date:

This image was taken during several nights between July and September 2022. It was taken with broadband filters (RGB) and enhanced with Hydrogen-α.

Telescope & Mount:

Takahashi FSQ-106ED on a Paramount MX+ mount

Imaging:

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro (bin 1×1)

Data:
Hα: 92x300s
R: 40x300s
G: 39x300s
B: 40x300s

Total integration time: 17h 32′

The double cluster is located south of the Heart nebula, which contains Melotte 15. The region covered by this image contains several additional open clusters: Stock 2 and 7, Czernik 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, Basel 10, King 4, Berkeley 69 and IC 1805.

The image below is the first I took with my new Askar 200ACL mounted on the back of my Celestron 9.25. It was taken on Dec. 17, 2022. Total integration time 8h 55′ (107x300s with the Optolong L-eXtreme filter) .