NGC7789, AlBroxton

NGC7789

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Description

NGC7789 is an open cluster in Cassiopeia that was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. Her brother William Herschel included it in his catalog as H VI.30. This cluster is also known as "The White Rose" Cluster or "Caroline's Rose" Cluster because when seen visually, the loops of stars and dark lanes look like the swirling pattern of rose petals as seen from above. All the stars in the cluster were likely born at the same time but the brighter and more massive ones have more rapidly exhausted the hydrogen fuel in their cores. These have evolved from main sequence stars like the sun into the gaggle of red giant stars apparent (with a reddish-yellow cast) in this lovely composite color image. Comparing computer models to observations of the red giants and main sequence stars astronomers can determine the mass and hence the age of the cluster stars just starting to "turn off" the main sequence to become red giants.

Observation Notes : 160 Stars estimated by counting 40 in the N to W quadrant. Bright, large, very rich, very much compressed at 100X. There are many dim members in this excellent cluster. Dark lanes wind through this group from edge to edge and give the impression of spiral structure. At 165X the cluster fills the field with many lovely pairs and delicate asterisms. This cluster has been a favorite since my first observation.

Comments

Revisions

  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    Original
  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    B
  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    C
  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    D
  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    E
  • NGC7789, AlBroxton
    F
  • Final
    NGC7789, AlBroxton
    G

Histogram

NGC7789, AlBroxton