NGC 886 (Lund 77, Stock 6) and Berkeley 63 (Lund 74) Open Clusters in Cassiopeia
Center of field at approximately: RA 02 hours 21 minutes 33 seconds, Dec +63 degrees 47 minutes 24 seconds
Size: 14' and 4.0' (3.0'); Magnitude: -- and --; Class: IV 2 p and III 1 p
North is up
West to the right
| Telescope: |
8" f5 Newtonian reflector |
| Camera: |
ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -25c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56 |
| Image: |
Lumicon Red filter, 550 minutes (55 x 10 minute subs), 11/21/22/2010; FWHM 2.2-3.0 per CCDStack |
| Processing: |
CCDStack 2.15.3969.17108, Photoshop 7.0 |
| Location: |
Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s) |
| Notes: |
Two nondescript open clusters ... Berkeley 63 is more obvious to the West (right), while NGC 886 is larger, but not at all detached, to the East (left). According to "Star Clusters", by Brent Archinal and Steven Hynes, the size of Berkeley 63 is 3.0 arc minutes. From the NGC / IC Project: Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 886 NGC 0886 = Stock 6 = OCL 347 02 23 12 +63 46.7 Size 14 17.5": the most noticeable grouping in this area is a 6' scattered group which is arranged into a rough pentagon with a broad triangular "roof" forming the W side. Nearly all of the stars here form the border of this figure and it visually appears to be an asterism. The brightest member is mag 8.5 SAO 12256 at the N vertex and a nice collinear triple star (with a close pair at ~10") marks the SW vertex. Only a few mag 13 stars are in the interior of this figure. This object is plotted as Stock 6 on the U2000. Discovered by JH (h214): A coarse straggling cl; not v rich; 10 or 12' dia. Stars 9...13." Incorrectly listed as a type 7 OC in the RNGC. The NGC position is only 5' off from the scattered cluster Stock 6. See NGCBUGS, Corwin. - by Steve Gottlieb |