Poor Man's Double Cluster

[petevasey]

NGCs 1817 and 1807 (lower right) open clusters in Taurus are named as 'The Poor Man's Double Cluster' in the Stellarium planetarium program. Quite appropriate! This month was plagued with bad weather, and a couple of attempts were thwarted by cloud or very bad seeing. But Christmas Eve was crisp and clear, and despite a bright gibbous waning Moon (94% illuminated!) I was able to obtain sufficient subs to produce an acceptable image. So this is the result of 21 x 5 minutes Luminance and 11 x 5 minutes each RGB. QSI 683 on Meade 127 refractor with SX AO unit. Look for tiny 15th magnitude galaxy PGC 16865 buried near the middle of NGC 1807.  Larger image here.

[Les Ewan]

Lovely image.

?

I find the nomenclature in stellarium a bit childish and annoying but as its a free download I suppose  we cant complain too much.

[petevasey]

8 hours ago, Les Ewan said:

Lovely image.

?

I find the nomenclature in stellarium a bit childish and annoying but as its a free download I suppose  we cant complain too much.

Thanks, Les, but as far as names go, this one's not too bad.  There are plenty of other strange names around - for example calling the galaxy group around NGC7331 the 'Deer Lick Group'.  At least the Poor Man's DC describes the objects.  Indeed I have my own name for the gas cloud containing IC 447.  The 'Triffid Nebula' .  Yes, definitely with two 'f's, nothing to do with Messier 20.  Have a look and you'll see why ?

Cheers, and Merry Christmas.

Peter