Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  NGC 457  ·  The star φCas
NGC 457, Paul
NGC 457
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NGC 457

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Good morning.

Thursday evening we had a rather, unexpectedly clear sky. The skies were a little hazy in parts and the Moon was a quarter phase.

But despite that, it certainly wasn't enough to deter me from CCD imaging.

I have bought a new focuser for my Megrez ED 80 II Triplet, and I was itching to try it out. It is a R&P focuser bought from the USA, Starlight Instruments!

It was expensive, but I think worth it.

Cadwell 13 or NGC 457 was discovered by William Herschel in 1787, and lies over 7,900 light years from the Sun. It has an estimated age of 21 million years. The cluster is sometimes referred, by, amateur astronomers, as the Owl Cluster, Kachina Doll Cluster, the ET Cluster (due to its resemblance to the movie character) or the "Skiing Cluster".

Two bright stars, magnitude 5 Phi-1 Cassiopeiae and magnitude 7 Phi-2 Cassiopeiae can be imagined as eyes. The cluster features a rich field of about 150 stars of magnitudes 12-15.

This object is well situated in the early evening, and throughout the night in Cassiopeia. And it is an ideal target for binoculars or a small, telescope.

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NGC 457, Paul