Double cluster - worth a look

[anthony]

Just had to share this

I have just spent a very pleasant half hour gazing at the double cluster - lovely colour coming through, nice and mild and a little glass of something with ice in it!

I tried a variety of eyepieces but the best appeared to be my meade 1.25" 32mm super plossl. This was in an F7 refractor, 110mm aperture. I tried the widefield moonfish too, (30mm I think). It gave a lovely FOV but I think that I remember it being said F7 is right at the limit for this eyepiece - I hope so anyway as only the centre third stayed crisp. Stars started to let it go beyong that..

On a seperate note I managed to see M57 ,(averted vision), through my WO 66mm frac' with a 15mm plossl - Didn't think that I would see that from my back garden through that scope!.

Anthony

[FLO]

I have just spent a very pleasant half hour gazing at the double cluster - lovely colour coming through, nice and mild and a little glass of something with ice in it!

The DC is one of my favourites and often looks better through the eyepiece than when imaged

[Greg]

The DC is one of my favourites and often looks better through the eyepiece than when imaged

I would have to agree with that one....

I'm not a cluster person but that's one of the few that does it for me..Always on my list that one..

[Ant]

I do like a nice open cluster and you don't get any better than the Double cluster.

I agree that unless you manage to get a really good image, it is almost always better visually than imaged.

Ant

[Helen]

Yep, it does it for me too!

Helen

[proflight2000]

it was lovely last night, i viewed it for about 20 minutes through a wide eyepiece and must say that is one area I would lock into to show people who have never looked what exactly is up there.

[Greg]

I spent a few hours with the bins...The DC was very nice along with Andromeda....

[barkis]

I have to agree with what Steve FLO said, somehow this beautiful double knot of stars, loses something when imaged. It might be an illusion, but I don't think so. I once took a photo of it with Tri-X mono film using the prime focus of a (wait for it) 8" f3 mirror I made many years ago.

Of course, this objective could never be parabolized fully, and the result was a fair bit of sperical aberration, but I do remember the huge amount of stars present on the resultant print. Albeit some of the looked like comets. So, I think with a large very fast lens (not cheap)

a lot more would obviously appear.

Ron.

[anthony]

I have only seen a couple of images that captured what it has visually - I have never tried imaging it myself as I know it would disappoint compared to the telescope view.

Anthony

[lunator]

The DC

is always a great target to view.

I just like the fact that you have 2 objects that are similar but the more you look the more subtle differences you'll see.

It one of the objects that when I look at it I think this is over 7000 light years away.

Cheers

ian

[The Warthog]

The cobble duster is a very fine object, but very poor from my back yard. I love to get it in a dark sky, though.