November 22, 2024

NGC 457 – The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia

NGC 457 – The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia

Telescope: 8” LX80 @ f/6.3, LX90 mount, altaz mode

Camera: Baader modified Canon 600Da, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 27x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/25sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 457 is one of my favorite open clusters in just about any size telescope. It makes a fine target for binoculars and small telescopes and becomes a very rich field in larger scopes. The two bright distinctive foreground stars makes it fairly easy to locate. In a small telescope it is worth taking some time with this field. At first your eye may only see the two bright foreground stars and a few of the brighter stars of the cluster. As your eyes relax you may start to see some of the fainter background stars and the cluster will begin to blossom into a beautiful field of stardust.

This is part of a series of images that I will be taking to explore deepsky imaging using fairly basic equipment and techniques. I was curious about this particular field as the mount was fairly busy on both axis to track it and it worked quite well.

NGC 457 is currently well placed in the northeast after sunset.