Perseus Double Cluster (NGC 869/884, Caldwell 14)

After I had been observing the new nova in Sagitta the other night (the 25th August) I thought I would point the telescope at an old favourite - the double cluster in the constellation of Perseus. The moon was a bit more of a problem by then so a nice bright object was ideal to observe. This is what I obtained with my Dwarf 3 after 83x15s (20.75 minutes):-

The first frame was taken at 22:48 BST and the last at 23:14. The astro filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have binned the image x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). Here is a close-up, unbinned crop of the above image:-

These open clusters are some of the finest objects in the night sky and can easily be seen with the naked eye as a faint double smudge near the sword hand of Perseus. Known also as h and Chi Persei, the upper cluster is NGC 869 and the lower is NGC 884. These objects (lying at a distance of about 7,500 light years in the Perseus Arm of our Milky Way galaxy) are relatively young and probably emerged from a single cloud of dust and gas about 13 million years ago. NGC 869 is the slightly more massive of the two but NGC 884 contains several prominent red supergiant stars (these can be seen in the above image). These are massive short-lived stars have already evolved off the main sequence. Each cluster contains about 300 stars.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

 

New Nova in Sagitta

** Update. This nova has now been given the name V488 Sagittae. **

Last night (25th August 2026) I received an alert to say that there was a new nova in the constellation of Sagitta (the arrow) and it was only discovered early in the morning by the NMW-TexasTech survey (NMW stands for New Milky Way). This new object has been given the designation PNV J19450648+1822422 and it is located at 19 45 06.48 +18 22 42.2. As it was clear I decided to go out and image it with my Dwarf 3 and here is what I obtained after 97x15s (24.25 minutes) of observation:-

The first frame was taken at 22:12 BST and the last at 22:41. The visual filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have binned the image x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). 

The nova is marked by the green line. The orangey looking bright star to the left of centre is delta Sagittae and the next brightest star to the far right is alpha. The following chart and stellar comparison sequence comes from the AAVSO (and so I hope they don't mind me reproducing it here):-

The labels in this chart identify the comparison stars magnitude so 81 is actually 8.1 visual magnitude. There are stars labelled 71, 73 and 77 that look to be as bright as the nova so that means roughly that the nova has a magnitude of around 7.1 to 7.7. This agrees with the follow-up photometry that has been done.

All text and images (except from the AAVSO) © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Eastern Veil Nebula (Caldwell 33)

Saturday night (the 22nd August) we had a nice clear evening and the gibbous waxing moon was low down in the south east. The evenings are beginning to darken again and it now gets fully dark by 10pm BST. I went out with my Dwarf 3 just after that time and decided to have a go at photographing the eastern edge of the Veil Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. This is Caldwell 33 and it is made up of NGC 6992 and NGC 6995. Here is what I obtained after 218x15s (54.5 minutes):-

The first frame was taken at 22:23 BST and the last at 23:46. The duo-band filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation and brightness of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). Here is a close-up of the nebula in the centre of the frame:-

It certainly is a very pretty object! NGC 6992 is the upper part of the nebula and NGC 6995 is the lower part that curves back on itself. This cloud of shining gas results from a Type II supernova that exploded around 15,000 years ago. What we see here is only part of the whole structure (the Cygnus Loop) which measures something like 3.5 x 2.7 degrees on the sky. During the time since the star exploded the ejected material has been expanding outwards into interstellar space. What we see here is the shell of the shockwave interacting with the local interstellar medium. Ribbons of hot gas are produced - some parts are emitting the red hydrogen alpha line but others are producing the green emission line of ionised oxygen (it looks blueish here). In the wider-field image above you can make out other smaller patches of nebulosity to the right which are a part of the loop.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026