Derby and District Astronomical Society
Caldwell 14 (NGC 869 and 884)
The Double Cluster
Open Clusters in Perseus
RA 02h 20m 00s Dec +57° 08' 00"
| This image of the Double Cluster was captured by Mike Lancaster on the 7th August 2024. The image comprises 64 x 15 second exposures taken using an Altair Hypercam 26C at 300 gain (plus darks, flats and flat darks), through an Orion Optics UK AG12 Astrograph mounted on an EQ8 mount. A 0.95x Wynne Corrector and Astronomik CLS-CCD filter were also employed. Due to the short exposures no guiding was employed. Images were acquired using SharpCap, and the processing was entirely performed in PixInsight. Image Credit: Mike Lancaster. |
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| Dave Selfe captured this image of the Double Cluster on the 31st October 2021. It is comprised of ten 30 second subs taken with a Nikon D750 camera through an Esprit 100ED telescope at ISO 800. Image Credit: Dave Selfe. |
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| This image of the Double Cluster was captured by Steven Chambers on the 9th December 2017. He used a modified Canon 550D camera on a Star Adventurer mount. Exposure details are given on the image. Image Credit: Steven Chambers. |
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| Brian Dodson captured this image of the Double Cluster on the 23rd February 2016. He used a Canon 300D camera with his Explore Scientific 127 mm refractor at prime focus, an 8 second exposure and ISO 1600. The image has been enhanced slightly using the levels setting in GIMP. With the moon only 1 day past full Brian comments "I was very chuffed with this result and I'm eager to try again when the moon isn't a factor". Image Credit: Brian Dodson. |
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| This image of the Double Cluster was taken by Chris Newsome through a Skywatcher 102T refractor (4" f/5) on the 23rd November 2006. Chris used a Canon EOS300D camera (unmodified) fitted with a 2" Astronomik CLS filter and guided with a Meade DSI through a Skywatcher 80T using a GPUSB guide interface controlled by MaximDL. The image is 15x300secs at 400ASA (1.25 hours of data), combined in MaximDL and then processed in CS2. Image Credit: Chris Newsome. |
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| Adrian Brown took this image of the Double Cluster in October 2006. He used an 80ED refractor, a ATK16HR CCD camera, Astronomik RGB filters and an Astronomik CLS light pollution filter. The whole cluster was too big to fit onto the CCD chip of Adrian's camera so he used a 2 panel mosaic to produce the final of the cluster, taken over 2 nights. Maxim DL was used to create the mosaic image. Exposure details were Red 11 x 3 minutes, Green 11 x 3 minutes, and Blue 17 x 3 minutes. Maxim DL was used to calibrate and combine the raw exposures. Adobe Photoshop was used to increase the star colour saturation and smooth the background noise. Image Credit: Adrian Brown. |
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| This image of the Double Cluster was taken by Chris Newsome on the 3rd September 2006. He used a Canon EOS 300D camera with a Skywatcher 80T refractor and Astronomik CLS filter. Sixteen 300 second exposures at 200ASA (1hr 20mins) were taken. This set up was guided by a Meade DSI camera through a Celestron C8-NGT with a GPUSB interface and controlled by MaximDL. The original TIFF images were calibrated and combined in MaximDL, and then processed in CS2 (Curves, RGB Levels, GradientXTerminator) before being converted to JPEG. Image Credit: Chris Newsome. |
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| Chris Newsome took the following image of The Double Cluster on the 19th July 2006. He used a Celestron C8-NGT telescope with a Canon EOS 300D camera. This setup was guided by a Meade DSI camera and a Skywatcher 80T telescope using a GPUSB interface and controlled with MaximDL. Ten 4 minute exposures at 200 ASA were calibrated and combined in MaximDL and processed in CS2. Image Credit: Chris Newsome. |
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| This lovely image of the Double Cluster was taken by Chris Newsome on the 17th November 2005. He used a Canon EOS300D camera at the prime focus of a Celestron C6-N. The image comprises seven 60 second exposures stacked and dark subtracted in K3CCDTools and then processed in Photoshop v7 using GradientXTerminator, curves and RGB Levels. The sky was extremely bright due to the near full moon, so heavy processing was required to remove the glow. Image © Chris Newsome. |
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| This wide field image of the Double Cluster was taken by Chris Newsome on the 22nd October 2005 with assistance in image processing by Adrian Brown. Image Credit: Chris Newsome. |
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| The following two images show the Double Cluster in Perseus as taken by Chris Newsome on the 9th August 2005. Details are given on the second image. Image Credit: Chris Newsome. |
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