The Caldwell Objects

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Cluster without optical aid. After looking for 30
minutes I was able to detect and chart four
naked-eye stars with magnitudes ranging from
6.4 to 7.0. The positions of these suns and several
other nearby ones make each cluster appear
falsely elongated (NGC 869 to the east and west
and NGC 884, north and south). Binoculars will
help you verify the presence of any stars whose
presence you suspect with the naked eye.
In 10x50 binoculars the core of NGC 884
looks like a translucent diamond surrounded by
a cloud of white smoke, as if it has just fallen into
a heap of lime. To its west the core of NGC 869 is
punctuated by a pair of stars that form the center
of a cross-shaped asterism. A stream of 8th- to
l0th-magnitude stars divides the two cores;
flowing in from the north, the stream curves
eastward around the southern periphery of NGC
884. A second river of stars
starts at the wide double star 7 Persei and follows
the western fringe of NGC 869 before it meanders
toward 9 Persei, more than 1° south of NGC 884.
When viewed with east "up," the "weight" of
NGC 869 seems to press down on this western
river of stars, causing it to sag. Sweeping the
binoculars to the south, then east toward 10
Persei should bring into view two rings of stars,
each roughly 1° in diameter. The Double Cluster
lies on the northern edge of the overlapping
rings, each of which appears to have been set
with a cluster of semiprecious stone. One could
imagine the stars of the Double Cluster having
been swept out of these rings into two piles. The
view brings to mind two frozen ponds cleared of
snow for skating. Skaters' tracks can be seen
faintly etched in starlight within each circle.
At 23x in the Genesis the Double Cluster is
transformed into an abundance of scintillating
66 Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects