NGC 869 & NGC 884 - The Double Cluster in Perseus (Nebulosity_Media)

NGC 869 & NGC 884 - The Double Cluster in Perseus

NGC 869 & NGC 884 - The Double Cluster in Perseus.

this image was taken at my family’s property in Weston, Colorado. Elevation 7,300ft. Bortle 2 skies.

The Double Cluster (also known as Caldwell 14) consists of the open cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884 (often designated h Persei and χ (chi) Persei, respectively), which are close together in the constellation Perseus. Both visible with the naked eye, NGC 869 and NGC 884 lie at a distance of about 7,500 light years in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Individually, the clusters have a mass of 3,700 solar masses (NGC 869) and 2,800 solar masses (NGC 884), but as each cluster is surrounded by an extended halo of stars, the total mass of the Double Cluster is at least 20,000 solar masses. The two clusters are separated by only hundreds of light years.

Shot on a ZWO ASI 2600 MC DUO w/ TS Optics 90mm CF APO Refractor. Mount was a Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro mount.

150x180” frames for 7.5 hours of integration time.

Thanks for looking !

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8630208
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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