$700 billion dollars. We all know what that number means. It’s a figure that can truly be called astronomical. How might we come to understand how large a number 700 billion really is? The answer’s simple: think astronomically.

700 billion dollar bills, arranged end to end, would reach from Venus to the sun. Illustration: Bob King 

Let’s start with distance. A one-dollar bill is six inches long. Mulitiply that measure by 700 billion and you get 66,287,879 miles. If you taped each bill end-to-end, they would span the distance between Venus and the sun. Whew, that’s quite a paper trail. 700 billion dollar bills could also be wrapped around the circumference of the Earth 2,651 times.

An artist’s view of the Milky Way (left), based on the latest scientific data, and a photograph of the Andromeda galaxy. Both are large spiral galaxies with a combined number of stars upwards of 400 billion. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left) and John Lanoue

Distances bore you? Let’s try objects. There are roughly 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and a similar number in the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy. Even if you gave one dollar to every star in both galaxies, you’d still have plenty left over to pass out to all the stars in the small galaxies neighboring the Milky Way. What to do with the last million or two in pocket change? Make a donation, treat yourself to a new car, invest and of course, buy that shiny new telescope.

There’s nothing like the sky to put things in perspective …

(Special note:  You’ve got to check out this video of the ATV cargo ship breakup on the European Space Agency website. What a fireball!)

The world in a drop of water. Close inspection of water drops on a twig in my neighborhood this morning reveal multiple images of lawn, trees and landscape. I flipped the image so you could better inspect the details. Each drop acts as a lens that focuses the scene in the background. Photo by Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

Everthing dripped with rain and dew this morning, inviting exploration of the world of water with eye and camera. Water droplets were probably the very first lenses. A small, nearly spherical droplet held together by its own surface tension can magnify 2x or more. By the 8th century (maybe earlier), "reading stones" of polished quartz and other minerals were used to magnify text. These resembled the cylinder or bar-shaped magnifiers we still use today. Spectacles appeared in the 1280s, and by the 1600s folks like Galileo and Anton van Leeuwenhoek, builder of early microscopes, created lenses of such quality that they became powerful tools of discovery.

Instructions for building your own water-lens magnifier can be found here. And if you’re curious about how lenses work, you can learn more at this site.

The ATV, otherwise known as Jules Verne, burns up in a raging fireball over the Pacific Ocean earlier today. More information here. Photo: ESA

While you were eating breakfast this morning around 8:30 Central time, the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) became a flaming meteor as it burned up in the atmosphere over an uninhabited area in the South Pacific Ocean. It was seen by aircraft and space station astronauts. Here’s the full report. The cargo ships’s six-month mission was a great success. Additional ATVs will be launched at six-month internals to dock with the space station and deliver equipment and supplies.

You can use this map to get you to Neptune’s vicinity. It shows the sky as you face south around 8:30-9 p.m. Start with Jupiter and Altair, the bottom apex of the Summer Triangle. Use them to guide you to the pair of stars called Alpha and Beta in Capricornus. Once you’ve found these two, look two fists to the left (east) to Delta, and then use the close-up map below. — created with Stellarium

Focus your binoculars now on Delta and slowly move them upward until you spot the "index finger". Got it? Good. Now move to the right and pick off star 1 and star 2. The "star" above star 2 is Neptune. Congratulations! — created with Chris Marriott’s Skymap Pro at skymap.com

The extended forecast shows several nights with clear skies this week, a fine time to return to Neptune. Several weeks ago, I posted a map on how to find this remote planet that most of us never get to see. Surprisingly, it’s visible in a pair of 7×50 or 10×50 (or larger binoculars) from suburban and rural locations. Since then, the planet’s moved a smidge to the west so I refreshed the map. You can use the wide map to put you on the path to Neptune. The second, more detailed view should help you nail it. Find a place with reasonably dark skies to the south. Two nights ago I put the maps to the test and found the planet without too much trouble in my 10x50s. Let us know if you find it too.

I helped my younger daughter identify a collection of insects last night, including a little jewel of a leaf beetle that looked like it had been dipped in silver paint. This was a particularly big accomplishment for us since beetles are one of the most successful insect groups in the world, boasting something like a million and half species.

After the bugs, we watched the Saturday Night Live intro and comic debate. During commercials, I stepped outside and found the sky spanking clear with stars so bright, it looked like a cleaning crew had come through. The time was late. Already autumn stars like the Square of Pegasus stood high in the south, while winter constellations like Taurus the Bull and even Orion bullied their way up in the east.

Draco is a dim but distinctly-shaped constellation well placed for early evening viewing in early fall. This map shows the sky as you’d see it while facing north around 8:30 p.m. The Dragon is a sinuous path of stars that starts just above the Bowl of the Dipper and ends right below brilliant Vega, high in the west. The Head of the Dragon is nicknamed the "Lozenge" because of its cough-drop shape. — created with Stellarium

Draco the Dragon, like Ursa Major (Big Dipper), is a constellation that overlaps several seasons. We first visited Draco in a blog last spring when its flaming snout cleared the eastern horizon in May. We return again in the fall to see it conveniently placed for early evening viewing. Draco remains a perennial favorite of children at planetarium shows because it’s one of the "scary" constellations like the Scorpion or the Sea Monster Cetus.

The constellations figures are superimposed on Ursa Major,
the Great Bear, Draco and Hercules. — created with Stellarium

Now that the sky is dark before children are in bed, it’s really an ideal time to go out and find the dragon together with them. Find a place with a reasonably open northern sky, and let your eyes adjust to the darkness. The first star above the end of the Dipper’s Bowl is the tip of his tail. Connect the dots upward toward Vega, which is nearly overhead at that hour. There are no bright stars in Draco but the Lozenge should be the easiest part to see. 

As long as you’re out tonight, you can watch for a great pass of the International Space Station (ISS) starting at 7:45 p.m. Central time (Sept. 28). It’ll cut a path right through the Big Dipper’s Bowl as it crosses the northern sky. Five minutes later at 7:50 p.m,, the Jules Verne cargo ship (ATV) makes its last good pass for us before it’s de-orbited tomorrow and burns up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean. Its track will nearly match that of the ISS.   

Draco was slain by the Strongman Hercules, as one of the 12 labors he was given to redeem himself after killing his family in a fit of insanity, induced by the goddess Hera. Talk about playing hardball. Hercules completed them all and became the greatest of Greek heros. Both he and Draco are remembered in the stars we see tonight.

Well, I can tell you this. Lightning and heavy rain last night sure made it hard to see the Shenzhou spacecraft pass. Think of how serene things must have been for the three astronauts sailing 200 miles overhead through the quietude of space. Had they paid any attention to little us, they would have seen tiny flashes of light from a black corner of the globe. That’s all.

To see a video of China’s first spacewalk, click here. I think you’ll enjoy how astronaut Zhai Zhigang waves for the camera as the Earth rolls in the background. Depending on exactly when the spacecraft returns to Earth, we may get another shot at seeing a pass on Sunday. Meanwhile, the International Space Station will make a low pass in the northwestern sky tonight (Saturday) beginning at 8:55 p.m. Then at 9:07 p.m., watch for the Jules Verne module (ATV) to appear briefly below the Handle of the Big Dipper. In two more days, it’ll be toast when re-enters Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific.

The planet Venus, goddess of beauty and love, still hugs the western horizon over the coming weeks but it’s getting a little easier to see every night. This map shows the sky around 7:20-30 p.m. looking west-southwest. — created with Stellarium

The sky is always bountiful. Tonight you can find Venus low in the west starting about 20-30 minutes after sunset or about 7:20 p.m. Look for a brilliant "star" about three outstretched fists to the left of the bright sunset point.

Because Venus circles the sun inside Earth’s orbit, it changes phase and size from our perspective. We watch the planet wane from full to crescent as it approaches the Earth in the evening sky (left half of diagram). After passing us, Venus appears in the morning sky (right half), and goes through its phases in reverse. Venus is closest to Earth and appears largest when it’s a crescent. Illustration: Ville Koistinen (with my own additions)

Just like our moon, Venus changes its phase. In a telescope tonight, it’ll look like a little gibbous moon, just shy of full. Venus speeds around the sun in a 225-day orbit. As it does, the planet changes both phase and apparent size as it approaches and then passes the slower Earth. It’s a lot of fun to watch these changes through a small telescope. Crescent looks the coolest because it’s so delicate and large. Even binoculars will show it. We’ll keep tabs on Venus in the coming months as the goddess ascends the evening sky.

Andrew Kirk of Bishop, California was out with his camera again, and sent me several beautiful photos yesterday. I thought you might enjoy seeing them. Thanks Andrew for sharing these with our readers!

The crescent moon huddles among a sumptuous display of crepuscular rays in this photo taken on Friday morning, Sept. 26. Photo credit: Andrew Kirk

Crespuscular rays burst the seams of this massive cumulus cloud on September 17. To create the super wide-angle view, Andrew used a program to stitch four separate, adjacent images into one. Photo credit: Andrew Kirk

The rocket stage that propelled Shenzhou into orbit passes just below Jupiter in this photo taken last night (Sept. 25) at 8:09 p.m. The sky’s pink cast is caused by light pollution from the city of Duluth. Details: 70mm lens at f/2.8, 30-second time exposure at ISO 800. Photo: Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

Tonight may be the only night we get a good shot at seeing the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft carrying the three Chinese astronauts. Their mission lasts three days, and Saturday night’s overflight of our region happens too early in the evening to see well. The forecast doesn’t look particularly promising but my Clear Sky Chart shows a clear to partly-cloudy break from 7 to 9 p.m., exactly during the observing window. I’ll be out, and hope you will too.

The map shows the path of the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft tonight (Sept. 26) as it travels from right to left across the southern sky. By good fortune, the ship will pass very near Jupiter — and be at its brightest when it does – before entering Earth’s shadow and fading out. — created with Stellarium

Go out a few minutes before the pass to get your eyes accustomed to the dark. The ship will be rather faint, so a pair of binoculars will be helpful to spot it. Don’t forget that at 8:28 p.m. the much brighter International Space Station will appear in the northwest and climb into the sky near the Big Dipper. It’s a good warm-up for Shenzhou-7.

Two hypothetical Earth-like planets in orbit around the double star BD+20 307 collide to form a fresh ring of dust around the suns. Illustration by Lynette Cook and used by permission.

In other astro news this week, astronomers have discovered an extraordinary amount of dust ringing a pair of older, sunlike stars called BD+20 307 some 300 light years away in the constellation of Aries. Dust rings and envelopes are relatively common around young stars in the process of forming planets. As stars mature, the dust either dissipates or is incorporated into the new planets. Old stars shouldn’t have tons of dust around them, which is why astronomers are convinced that it was created by the collision of two Earth-sized planets. One or both of them strayed from their stable orbits and toward a collision course with the other.  

Chances are small that something so catastophic could happen, but during the lifetime of our own solar system, scientists predict a possible collision of Mercury with Earth or Venus in the next billion years or so. Our very moon was likely formed as a result of a collision between a Mars-sized planet and the Earth in the early days of the solar system.

Things appear safe and stable at home base for now, but add the element of time, and tiny probabilities can add up to powerful realities.

A maple tree lifts its crown to last night’s clear, starry sky.
The cloudy streak with a bright center at top is the Andromeda
galaxy. Photo: Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

Update 10:35 p.m. — see map below for tonight’s pass of Shenzhou-7

Sweet night yesterday if only for a little while. We had clouds but not before two bright space station passes and one flyover of our friend, Jules Verne (ATV). With a little luck in the weather department, we’ll be treated to evening passes of a brand new satellite, the Chinese manned spaceship Shenzhou-7. The name means "Divine Vessel" and the ship will carry three Chinese astronauts — called taikonauts — into orbit for a three-day journey into space. Tomorrow, one of the astronauts will perform China’s first spacewalk, the mission’s highlight. 

Chinese astronauts (left to right), Jing Haipeng, Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming attend a send-off ceremony before the launch of China’s third manned space mission at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province on Thursday, Sept. 25. (AP PHOTO)

The ship launched at 6:10 Central time this morning the 25th with great fanfare. On board, the taikonauts will get to choose from a menu of 80 different foods including spicy kung-pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruits. They’ll also use special pencils costing $1470 from a firm in Shanghai to take notes on what they observe in space. The pencils are three times the thickness of regular pencils, made of slip-proof basswood and can be used on both ends. China First Pencil Co. Ltd. will produce an additional 2,008 pencils for general sale at $750 a pop. Sounds like American-style capitalism is alive and well in China.

It’s a great achievement to send humans into space, and the Chinese are justifiably proud. China’s growing space program can only enhance our understanding of the world that begins where our atmosphere ends.

As soon as predictions for evening flyovers are available, I’ll update the blog on when and where to look for Shenzhou-7, so check back later in the day. I hope we’ll all get a chance to see this historic flight. For more information on the mission, you can click here. For a fascinating look into the origin of (ahem) pencils, take a look at this story.

At right, a Long-March II-F rocket blasts the three Chinese astronauts into Earth orbit early this morning. (AP PHOTO)

The path of Shenzhou-7 through Northland skies this evening the 25th. We may also get to see the final rocket stage precede the spacecraft, so watch for two lights to pass across brilliant Jupiter. Shenzhou-7 will be faint this evening so I’d recommend binoculars to catch it. Look left and right of Jupiter at the times shown. After 8:10:45 p.m., the craft will disappear into Earth’s shadow. We’ll have it nailed down much better for the Friday and Saturday passes. You may also want to start viewing a couple minutes early and stick around for a couple minutes after the times on the map. Good luck! 

Update 10:35 p.m. — Yes, it was visible! Based on a communication with a satellite prediction expert, it was the spacecraft’s rocket stage that followed the track pictured above, and it appeared about a half-minute early. You wouldn’t call it bright, but it was still easily visible to the naked eye. It moved quickly and faded out just to the left (east) of Jupiter. I hope you saw it. The ship itself passed a few degrees above Jupiter about five minutes later but I did not see it. Please share your observation by leaving a comment below.

Tomorrow’s blog will have the remaining passes listed.

Nice to wake up to the sun shine this morning. The haze of the past week was swept away so completely that the waning crescent moon stood out sharply in the clean sky even at 9 o’clock. The Clear Sky Chart for our region forecasts cloudless skies through the early hours of tomorrow morning. This will give us a great chance to see lots of satellites (see yesterday’s blog) and find the Dumbbell Nebula. More about that in a minute.

On Monday, an unidentified man adjusts a telescope that once belonged to Albert Einstein. Students and visitors will be able to look through the long-lost scope starting Thursday after it’s renovated. (AP Photo/Hebrew University in Jerusalem)

I read in today’s paper about the discovery of Einstein’s long-lost telescope. It was stored in a shed at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Einstein received the scope in 1954, the year before he died, as a gift from his friend Zvi Gizeri. Gizeri likely made the scope himself. It’s clearly a reflecting telescope — one that uses mirrors to gather and focus light – on a heavy-duty metal mount. Since the tube measures about eight inches in diameter and six feet long, the mirror would be six to eight inches across. This would have been a substantial amateur telescope for the era.

You wonder if Einstein actually used it to look at the sky. If he toted the scope into his front yard on September 24, 1954, he would have seen Mars almost exactly where Jupiter is now in Sagittarius. More likely, he pondered equations deep into the night, trying to reconcile quantum mechanics with relativity. Let’s assume he stepped out into the pre-dawn air to clear his head. If Einstein looked to the east, Jupiter in Gemini would have caught his gaze for sure. We’ll probably never know for certain if he hauled it outside for a look-see, but it’s cool just to know that Einstein had a telescope.

This map shows the southern sky around 9 o’clock this week. You’ll recall that Vega, Deneb and Altair form the familiar asterism of the Summer Triangle. Altair is due south and halfway up in the sky. The Dumbbell’s home is the faint constellation of Vulpecula the Fox. To find the nebula, you can use Sagitta the Arrow, located one outstretched fist above Altair. — created with Stellarium

You won’t need a telescope to see the Dumbbell Nebula, which is located just above the little, arrow-shaped constellation of Sagitta the Arrow this fall. Binoculars will do. The Dumbbell was the first planetary nebula to be discovered. It was snagged in telescopic sweeps by that famous seeker of comets, Charles Messier, in 1764. Planetary nebulas are small, round clouds of glowing gas whose distinct shapes reminded early astronomers of planets, hence the name.

At the center of each planetary is a faint, tiny and impossibly dense star called a white dwarf. One teaspoon of white dwarf matter weighs five tons. Or how about this: A white dwarf packs an entire sun’s worth of matter into a sphere the size of Earth. They’re the ultimate tin of sardines.

The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as M27 (the 27th entry in Messier’s catalog of deep sky objects) shines by the light of the white dwarf star visible at its center. The Dumbbell is around 1300 light years from Earth. This time-exposure photo reveals the green glow of excited oxygen atoms in rarified gas. Photo: Jim Misti

The sun will evolve into a white dwarf as it ages and ultimately runs out of nuclear fuel. Some four to five billion years from now, our favorite star will shed its atmosphere, exposing its very core. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the core, now called a white dwarf star, will excite the expanding shell of its former atmosphere and create a beautiful, glowing sphere. Voila! A planetary nebula. Their lovely oval and round shapes and cool blue-green colors place planetaries high on the "favorites" list of amateur astronomers.

The Dumbbell gets its name from the familiar hand weight form, which shows very nicely in a telescope. The nebula is also easily seen in ordinary binoculars as a fuzzy, cloud-like patch some three "fingers" above the end of the Sagitta arrow. Point your binoculars right above Altair, and find the line of stars that make the arrow. The nebula is directly above the arrow tip. Matter of fact, if you put the "tip star" in the bottom of your binocular field, you’ll probably see the Dumbbell in the top half.

Binocular star gazing is more challenging than naked eye but when mastered, you’ll be on a first-name basis with more members of the cosmic zoo than you ever realized were there.

The newly-named dwarf planet Haumea and its two moons, Hi’iaka (bottom) and Namaka, were discovered by astronomer Mike Brown on December 28, 2004. He gave Haumea the nickname "Santa" at the time. Last week, it received its official name and classification as a dwarf planet. Illustration: NASA

Last week astronomers added another dwarf planet to our solar system. Named Haumea (how-MAY-eh), after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth and fertility, it joins a select group that includes Ceres, Pluto, Makemake (mah-kee-MAH-kee) and Eris. Dwarf planets are large enough to be nearly spherical but not big enough to keep their orbital neighborhoods clear of other asteroids and the like. Haumea, discovered by Mike Brown (right), professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, stretches the definition of round. It’s shaped like an egg with dimensions of 1200 by 600 miles, and rotates once every four hours. Two tiny moons – Hi’iaka and Namaka – named after Haumea’s daughters, accompany the dwarf planet as it orbits the sun at the chilling distance of four billion miles. That’s a billion miles beyond Neptune, the furthest planet. If you could walk on Haumea, you’d feel the crunch of an unusual form of crystalline ice under your boots. An odd little world indeed.

Over a thousand minor solar system bodies, including four dwarf planets, have been discovered beyond Neptune. Here’s a sampling of the biggest ones. Notice that Eris is larger than Pluto. Illustration: NASA

Last night the sky was perfect for seeing the brilliant pass of the International Space Station after 8 o’clock. It was preceded by a fine pass of the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) that serviced the station earlier this year.

In this 60-second time exposure photo, the International Space Station passes beneath the bright star Vega (upper right) last night, Sept. 22, about 8:20 p.m. Photo: Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

The following tables show the times of additional good passes this week of the ISS, the ATV and a rather peculiar satellite, the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) (below). The EAS is 1400-lb. unneeded piece of coolant equipment the size of a big refrigerator. It was jettisoned from the ISS last July and will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere sometime next spring. I’ve never seen this new satellite but according to the predictions, it will make some passes this week over our region. It’s not bright. Look for a moving light a little fainter than the stars in the Big Dipper at the appointed times. I wish you success!

Internation Space Station passes:

ATV passes:

Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) passes:

Gorgeous orange mushrooms only an inch tall sprouted recently in my front yard. The longer nights and rains that are part of the fall season are ideal for mushroom growth. Photo: Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

Even as I write this, the last minutes of summer are ticking by as we prepare to set foot into autumn. At 10:44 Central time this morning the 22nd, the sun will cross the celestial equator on its journey southward. The celestial equator is simply a projection of the Earth’s equator onto the sky above. For residents of equatorial cities like Padang, Indonesia and Quito, Ecuador, the sun rose due east this morning, will pass directly overhead at noon and set due west. Because Duluth is some 47 degrees north of the equator, the projection of the equator in our sky is 43 degrees high or about four outstretched fists above the southern horizon.

From mid-northern latitudes like Duluth, the sun still rises due east and sets due west, but its maximum height above the horizon around noon is about 45 degrees or halfway between the zenith (top of sky) and southern horizon. At the north pole, the celestial equator sits directly on the horizon. If you could stand there today, you’d see only the top of the sun on the horizon describe a complete circle around you in 24 hours. In a few days, the sun will disappear below the horizon for north pole dwellers, marking the start of six months of twilight and night. The image at right, of the north pole icescape, was taken by a webcam operated by NOAA and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. To see more, click here.

Good thing we’re south of the pole. Things won’t be nearly so bleak here. The first day of fall is also called the autumnal equinox. The root "equi" refers to the equality of day and night. Both are about 12 hours long today. 

The sun set nearly due west in this photo taken by Connie in northern Minnesota on September 20. On the first day of fall, the sun shines directly over Earth’s equator.

We’re at the balance point on our seasonal see-saw today. During the first half of the year, our end slowly rose upward while our southern hemisphere counterparts’ seat descended. Today we sit directly across from one another —  Australians are enjoying the first day of spring as we begin the fall. When our feet finally touch the ground three months from now, we’d better be wearing boots because winter will be at hand.

Special update:
There’s going to be an spectacular pass of the International Space Station tonight (Mon. Sept. 22) during the early evening. Watch for it to appear in the west-southwest at 8:17 p.m. and cross nearly overhead at 8:20 p.m. It will rival Jupiter in brightness. Tomorrow I’ll post more times not only for the ISS but also the ATV and a new (and curious) satellite.

This map shows the northern sky around 8:30 p.m. the first week of fall. Cassiopeia is the bright W of stars well-placed halfway up in the northeastern sky. — created with Stellarium

The moon’s at last or third quarter phase, having completed 3/4 of its monthly orbit around the Earth. It has the same "half a pie" shape like the first quarter moon but reversed, with the left half lit. The moon still provides enough illumination for distinguishing forms in the night landscape but clearly its light is slipping away. Dark skies are again at hand.

With the stars back in full force and Cassiopeia the Queen in her glory, this coming week will be a good one to find the Perseus Double Cluster. Even though it’s in the constellation of Perseus the Hero, the Double Cluster is found more easily using Cassiopeia’s stars. Just drop one outstretched fist below the left side of the W and look for a small, puffy cloud. If you can see the Milky Way in Cassiopeia, the Double Cluster will look like a brighter condensation within it. It’s not hard to spot from suburban neighborhoods. The ancient Babylonians and Greeks knew this little cloud too. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus included it in his catalog of the sky in 130 B.C. 

The Double Cluster is directly below Cassiopeia and one of the sky’s best binocular objects. You can also use the W to point you to the Andromeda Galaxy, described in an earlier blog. Photo: Bob King / Duluth News Tribune

To the naked eye, there’s not much more to look at than an unresolved glow about the size of two full moons, but binoculars reveal the cloud as a splendid pairing of two individual star clusters. With my favorite pair of 10x50s, I can resolve lots of stars in each cluster and enjoy their different characters. The cluster on the left is called NGC 884, its companion to the right is NGC 869. 869 is richer in stars and more compact than its neighbor. Both clusters are some 300 light years apart and approximately 7000 light years from Earth.

This photograph of the Double Cluster gives you a good idea how it appears in an amateur telescope. NGC 884 is at left , and NGC 869, right. Notice the red stars, especially around 884. Photo: N.A. Sharp, NOAO, AURA, NSF

We’ve seen that some pairings in the sky are chance alignments but that’s not so with Double Cluster. Both of them are anchored together in an enormous cloud of gas and young stars called the Perseus OB1 association, located in an outer spiral arm of our galaxy. If you sweep the sky around the Double Cluster with binoculars, I guarantee you’ll bump into even more clusters.

I’ll never forget my first look at the Double Cluster as a boy from my suburban Chicago neighborhood. Even there, I was knocked over by the hundreds of stars I could see in my low power telescope. Several ruby-red stars sprinkled about added an additional dimension of beauty to the scene. A little horseshoe of stars at the center of 869 is one of my favorite asterisms in the sky.

All star clusters are gravitationally-bound collections of stars born from clouds of gas of dust called nebulas. Astronomically speaking, both of our featured clusters were born recently: six million years ago for NGC 869 and 14 million for NGC 884. For comparison, consider that the sun is five billion years old. The Double Cluster is filled with freshly-minted supergiant and giant stars that shine with a fierce brilliance. They’re a highlight of the new season now at hand.