THE DOUBLE CLUSTER IN PERSEUS
The Double Cluster (also known as Caldwell 14) is the common name for the naked-eye open clusters NGC
884 and NGC 869 which are close together in the constellation Perseus. NGC 884 and NGC 869 are at
distances of 7600 and 6800 light-years away, respectively, so they are also close to one another in space.
The clusters' ages, based on their individual stars, are relatively young. NGC 869 is 5.6 million years old and
NGC 884 is 3.2 million years old, according to the 2000 Sky Catalogue. There are more than 300 blue-white
super-giant stars in each of the clusters. The clusters are also blueshifted, with NGC 869 approaching Earth at
a speed of 22 km/s (14 mi/s) and NGC 884 approaching at a similar speed of 21 km/s (13 mi/s).
(Wikipedia)
Shot at the prime focus of my Stellarvue SV70ED 420mm f6 Travelhawk (Little Big
Man) and manually guided with my SV78S Blackhawk (Tank). This is a 25 minute
manually guided exposure on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (no push) using a Losmandy
GM-8. Scanned at 7200 dpi/8 bit on a Plustek 7600i SE using the multiscan
function (16X) of Silverfast. Processed in PixInsight SE.
