APOD 2.6

Located in the constellation Perseus, the hero, at about 7,000 light-years away, these two open star clusters lie very close together. They are very easily visible with the use of binoculars, and if you know where to look in the sky, they are sometimes visible to the unaided eye. This double star cluster is so easily seen, that it was cataloged in 130 BC by Greek astronomer Hipparchus. The two clusters are also known as h Persei (NGC 869) on the left and chi Persei (NGC 884) on the right, and the clusters are a mere few hundred light-years away from each other and contain much younger and hotter than our sun. It also appears that these two star cluster were born of the same star-forming region, meaning they are very close in age. This pretty interesting to see, especially since we viewed these two star clusters during our recent class star gaze. Its amazing how close these two clusters are, and yet you can easily distinguish a difference or seperation between the two.