NGC 457, what do you think it is?

[bomberbaz]

I refer to the beautiful little open cluster just off the bottom of Casseopia. 

The first time I saw it was through my dob and a highish mag, around 100x and the first thing I thought was wow, it looks like a giant bat!

I have since found out it has names of the OWL, Dragonfly or even ET. 

So what does anyone else thing it should be called, any of the above or something else

 

Maybe i should have made a poll, 

[Moonshane]

ET for me!

[Stu]

Me too, one of my favourites :-)

[Moonshane]

enough said.

[Steve Ward]

Hunting Owl for me ....

[Moonshane]

hardly plausible Steve. those mice have no legs!

[estwing]

tis a gem whatever you call it!

[LeeB]

Showed a group of non astronomers it on friday night from Lucksall camp site , I said would you like to see ET showed them ngc457 and they said it looked like an owl. !!? the unwashed masses can't all be wrong....

[Scooot]

Owl for me, one if my favourites.

[markse68]

Bat 😉

[DaveS]

Owl

[wookie1965]

ET phone home

[paulastro]

No doubt about it, ET.  I know this because he winks at me every time I look at him.  Also he doesn't look a jot like the local Tawny Owls which frequently call to me when I'm observing.

Edited October 4, 2022 by paulastro

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Visually, my first thought was Johnny-5-is-alive from Short Circuit.

[Hawksmoor]

Kermit

[LukeSkywatcher]

Dad dancing. Head,arms,legs flapping all over the place.

[Pixies]

Seems appropriate - as he was given to Perseus by Athena (in the film Clash of the Titans). It was Athena who stuck Andromeda, Perseus, Cepheus and Cassiopeia into the sky as constellations.

[Gfamily]

I use a diagonal, so it's always seen with the two eyes at the bottom - it's clearly a dragonfly.

Two huge eyes, four wings . A dragonfly. 

 

[DaveS]

I hope to be imaging this tomorrow night if it holds clear, so I'll put up the image as evidence.

[DaveS]

Stellarium shows it as the Dragonfly, but also lists it as the Owl and E.T. cluster.

[Zermelo]

Owl.

It's one of the few named objects that looked obvious to me the first time I saw it.

[Stu]

Zombie…. As in zombie thread revival 🤣🤣

Still ET for me, eight years later 👍👍

[Astroscot2]

It was known as the owl cluster before ET arrived to the screens.

 

[DaveS]

28 minutes ago, Stu said:

Zombie…. As in zombie thread revival 🤣🤣

Still ET for me, eight years later 👍👍

"That is not dead which can eternal lie

And with strange eons even death may die"

 

[TheycallmeRiver]

I’ve never observed this cluster before, but I’ll certainly be doing so after looking at those images.

for what it’s worth, I saw the bat first.