Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)
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Stock 2, Gary Imm
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Stock 2

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Stock 2, Gary Imm
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Stock 2

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Description

Discovered by Jurgen Stock in 1956, this object is a large, loose open cluster of over 200 stars located only 1100 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Some see this as a stick man flexing his muscles and call it the “Muscleman Cluster”, while others see streams of raindrops or a man bent over a cane. I have a hard time seeing much of anything here, although if I stare look enough I can see a few patterns. The brighter stars appear uniformly white, so it appears to be an older cluster. I don't see any sign of a spherical cluster shape - it seems to me to be more of an asterism than a cluster.

More interesting than the cluster to me are several orange-blue double stars in the image, including a bright pair at upper left.

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