- Constellation: Cassiopeia
- Distance: 1,000 ly
North of the Double Cluster is a sparse open cluster called Stock 2, or sometimes called the Muscle Man Cluster. It is said to resemble a stick man figure flexing their biceps. It contains some 50 stars and is located around 1,000 light years distant.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: ZWO 1600 MM
- Constellation: Cassiopeia
- Right Ascension: 01h 46.0m
- Declination: +61° 15′
- Distance: 6,850 ly
A young open cluster located in Cassiopeia, estimated to contain about 400 members. The cluster contains at least 24 Be type stars which are B class stores that show distinctive hydrogen lines in their spectra and at least five blue stragglers. Also visible are two red super giant stars.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Sagittarius
- Right Ascension: 18h 17m
- Declination: −18° 29′
- Distance: 10,000 - 16,000 ly
Messier 24 or sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud is one of the densest concentrations of stars visible in low power optical instruments. The dense concentration of stars as visible due to a lack of dust obscuring the Milky Way in this area.
This image includes the open cluster NGC 6603 just above the center, and several dark nebula that blot out the stars on the right side of the image. The star cloud lies at a distance of 10,000 to 16,000 light years from us.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: ZWO 1600 MM
- Constellation: Cygnus
- Right Ascension: 20h 3.7m
- Declination: +44° 00'
- Distance: 3,900 ly
NGC 6866 is an open cluster located in Cygnus. Caroline Herschel is credited with it's discovery. The blue stars really stand out, and you can just start to see the of a reddish glow of interstellar gas and dust that permeates this area of the sky.
It shows up in the field of view of my photo-metric observations of Kic 8462852, so while waiting for my next target I used the ES127 refractor to take some R/G/B images of it. At least one of the stars is a short term variable star.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Hydra
- Right Ascension: 08h 13.7m
- Declination: -05° 45
- Distance: 1500 ly
Messier 48, an open cluster in the constellation of Hydra. Charles Messier originally recorded a wrong position for it, so it was "lost" until later astronomers identified it as NGC 2548. The cluster contains around 80 stars with three yellow giant stars.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: ZWO 1600 MM
- Constellation: Puppis
- Right Ascension: 07h 41.8m
- Declination: −14° 49′
- Distance: 5,400
Messier 46 is an open cluster located in the constellation of Puppis. The cluster contains approximately 500 stars and is estimated to be 300 million years old. Also visible in the cluster is a planetary nebula designated NGC 2438, however the nebula does not appear to be part of the cluster as it's radial velocity is different. Also barely visible is another planetary PK231+4.1 up and left of M46, and open cluster M 47 is also visible in the upper right corner.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
Read more: Messier 46, Messier 47 Open Clusters and Planetary Nebula Times 2
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: ZWO 1600 MM