Last week, I issued a challenge to myself and others to try and capture a photo of the Double Cluster, in the constellation Perseus, and near Cassiopeia in one of the dimmer stretches of the Milky Way.  And then, it rained for a week.

Now that the rain has ended, and the skies have cleared, I am posting a special mid-week edition of my otherwise weekly astronomy posts, to share my results below!  (In color, and in black and white – which highlights individual stars but eliminates some depth).  This pair of open clusters is visible to the naked eye on a very dark night, BUT unless your eyes are incredibly good, they can’t be resolved into a distinct pair without some magnification.

The pictures below were taken with a Nikon D3100, 70mm lens and made by stacking 26 individual 5-second exposures, for an effective exposure time of just over 2 minutes.

Did you get a pic of this cluster?  Let me know, and include a link to your results in the comments – and thanks for playing along!

Get Out There!
Troy
http://www.flying-squirrel.org