Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 166  ·  NGC 654  ·  NGC 659  ·  NGC 663  ·  The star 44 Cas
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Four open clusters in one frame, Roberto Marinoni
Four open clusters in one frame
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Four open clusters in one frame

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Four open clusters in one frame, Roberto Marinoni
Four open clusters in one frame
Powered byPixInsight

Four open clusters in one frame

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Description

The image shows an area in the southern side of Cassiopeia constellation, where we can see four open clusters in the same frame.
In the center there is NGC 663, composed by a hundred of white stars and an estimated age of 20 million of years: its distance from Earth is 7900 light years. 
On its left there is NGC 659, smaller in apparent dimension and less showy, at an estimated distance of 6300 light years.
On the right of NGC 663 we see NGC 654, composed by about sixty stars and characterized by the presence of one bright star on its side: it is located at a distance of 7800 light years.
Very near to NGC 654 there is the bluish nebula VdB6, but it is barely visible in this image obtained from my Bortle 8 sky.
But the more interesting cluster is, in my opinion, IC 166, visible in the upper right side of the frame. It is fainter than the other three and shows reddish stars, maybe due to the interstellar absorption.

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