Stars
Alpha Cassiopeiae - An easily split pair. The yellow primary is very bright compared to the faint blue secondary. Optical double.
Eta Cassiopeiae - Double star: This is a very pretty and easily split double star which shows a yellow-white primary and a red-gold secondary. A small 80mm (3.1-inch) scope at 80x magnification will easily split them.
WZ Cass - Double star: Nice colour contrast.
Phi Cas - Double star:
Struve 163 - Double star: Not far from Epsilon Cas. Shows great colour variation between the orange primary star and the two fainter blue companions.
Struve 3053 - Double star: North of 10 Cas is a nice orange/blue pair.
Sigma Cas - Double star: Tigh pair of blue stars. Challenge for small scopes. 3 arc second separation.
Rho Cassiopeiae (ρ Cas) - Double star: A rare yellow hypergiant and one of the most luminous stars in the galaxy. Rho Cassiopeiae is half a million times more luminous than the Sun and has a diameter of 630 million kilometers. To give an idea of it's enormous size, if the star were at the centre of our Solar System it would be large enough to completely swallow Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and almost reach the orbit of Jupiter! Rho Cassiopeiae is classified a semi-regular pulsating variable star with a minimum magnitude of +6.2 and a maximum magnitude of +4.1. The period is approximately 320 days and it can be seen with the naked eye when towards the brighter end of the range. It's located 8,200 light-years from Earth. Open cluster NGC 7789 is positioned 1.5 degrees southeast of rho Cassiopeiae.
WZ Cas - Carbon Star: Mag. 7.4, Spectral: C5p. SAO 21002
DSO's
NGC 581, M103 - Open Cluster: compact triangular shape, a rich smattering of stars within the figure, a striking ruby-red member, and a triple star (Struve 131) at the triangle's north apex. The cluster's also easy to find, located ½° north and 1° east of bright Delta Cassiopeiae. This is a relatively small open cluster, about 8' in diameter. It contains about 20 relatively bright stars, and is loosely gathered. It is seen through the finder scope or binoculars as a slightly hazy patch.
Trumpler 1 - Open Cluster: Pops nicely with about 30 stars, but its most interesting feature is the almost perfectly straight line of four stars along the cluster's western border like a miniature Orion's Belt with one extra punch. Look closely because one of the stars splits into an attractive, close double.
NGC 659 - Open Cluster: a starry pentagon set against a slightly hazy background of fainter stars that responds well to averted vision.
NGC 663, C10 - Open Cluster: Splashy, Bright. Lying very close to M-103, this fine open cluster is more impressive than that object. It is somewhat resolved in binoculars, and is well detached from the background. It consists of 10-12 bright stars and about 50 fainter stars, and is moderately concentrated to the center.
NGC 654 - Open Cluster: A rich, moderately compact cluster similar to but half the size of NGC 663, lies 1° back to the northwest. A 7th-magnitude star pins its southern border.
NGC 743 - Open Cluster: A lovely harp-shaped cluster. Though lacking a distinct core, this pretty group catches the eye even at low magnification.
Stock 2 - Open Cluster: fits the bill. You can imagine all kinds of patterns in this gangly assemblage of old stars: a man bent over a cane, streams of raindrops, even someone lifting weights. The cluster's arguably more beautiful in binoculars and small telescopes where a large field of view makes it pop.
NGC 7654, M52 - Open Cluster: This beautiful open cluster is about 12' in diameter, and is composed of relatively bright stars. The cluster is relatively concentrated to the center, and is dominated by a bright red star, and is well detached from the stellar background.
NGC 457, C13 - Open Cluster: ET Cluster, Owl Cluster. This fine cluster is composed of 75-100 bright stars which form the shape of an owl with spread wings and the bright double star Phi Cas as its eyes. This cluster and its distinctive shape are easily seen in binoculars.
NGC 7789 - Open Cluster: About 15' in diameter and composed of hundreds of stars. The stars are about 10-11 magnitude, but their numbers and compact size makes this open cluster resemble a loosely gathered globular cluster.
NGC 129 - Open Cluster: Located midway between Caph and gamma (γ) Cas. This sparkling group contains at least 35 stars with the brightest members being of 8th magnitude and visible in binoculars. The cluster is a fine telescope object with many dozens of stars visible arranged in chains across a diameter of 21 arc minutes. NGC 129 is 9,900 light-years distant and estimated to be 76 million years old. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 16, 1788.
NGC 281 - Emission Nebula: This is a large emission nebula which is faintly seen in binoculars, but really needs aperture to appreciate. Seen well with a UHC filter, it shows a rough triangle or kidney bean shape with a curving, comma shaped appendage extending to the south. Dark patches here and there add interest to the view. This relatively unknown object deserves closer scrutiny.
NGC 7635 - Emission Nebula: Bubble Nebula. Found 35 arcminutes southwest of open cluster M52. A 6-inch telescope will reveal the nebula as a bright, uniform disk two arcminutes across, surrounding a 9th- magnitude star.
Photographic:
IC 1805, Heart Nebula
IC 1848, Soul Nebula
NGC 281, Pac-man Nebula
IC 59, IC 63, Gamma Cass
NGC 7635, Bubble Nebula
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