ASTRO: NGC 7128 Colorful star cluster in great star field

NGC 7128 is an open cluster in the constellation of Cygnus. The
distance to it has usually been put at about 7500 light years but I
found a well researched paper indicating it is more like 13000 light
years away give or take 10%. This puts it on the edge of the Perseus
arm of our galaxy rather than between arms. Since it is a rather young
cluster, something over 10 million years old, it wouldn't have had time
to move out of an arm as the old distance estimates said. Another
reason I like this new distance estimate.

I was drawn to this cluster by Dreyer's description which mentioned that
it contained a ruby star. Always liking carbon stars and other very red
stars I had to view it at the first opportunity. When I did I found it
contained two bright orange stars and a third fainter one but I never
did see the ruby star Dreyer mentions. Still it is a great cluster
visually due to the color contrast of those K giant stars standing in
contrast to the blue B stars it contains.

Clusters need the very best nights for seeing as otherwise the stars
just look lousy. I hate to "waste" a good night of seeing on just stars
but when it's one of your favorite visual clusters you do so. Though I
cheated and only used one 10 minute shot for each color channel. When
there are no faint fuzzies you can get away with that. Oddly when I put
it together the color was so strong I had to turn it down. Usually I
have to boost the color, especially of clusters. Not this time. I
don't know why this turned out so differently as I didn't process it any
differently.

Sorry no faint fuzzies in the background. Just too much dust and gas in
ours to let me see anything beyond. Image taken September 17, 2009.
I'm not gaining on my backlog.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Nice cluster Rick. Not sure if it would hit the no. 1 spot in my cluster
charts, but certainly a nice one.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
NGC 7128 is an open cluster in the constellation of Cygnus. The
distance to it has usually been put at about 7500 light years but I
found a well researched paper indicating it is more like 13000 light
years away give or take 10%. This puts it on the edge of the Perseus
arm of our galaxy rather than between arms. Since it is a rather young
cluster, something over 10 million years old, it wouldn't have had time
to move out of an arm as the old distance estimates said. Another
reason I like this new distance estimate.

I was drawn to this cluster by Dreyer's description which mentioned that
it contained a ruby star. Always liking carbon stars and other very red
stars I had to view it at the first opportunity. When I did I found it
contained two bright orange stars and a third fainter one but I never
did see the ruby star Dreyer mentions. Still it is a great cluster
visually due to the color contrast of those K giant stars standing in
contrast to the blue B stars it contains.

Clusters need the very best nights for seeing as otherwise the stars
just look lousy. I hate to "waste" a good night of seeing on just stars
but when it's one of your favorite visual clusters you do so. Though I
cheated and only used one 10 minute shot for each color channel. When
there are no faint fuzzies you can get away with that. Oddly when I put
it together the color was so strong I had to turn it down. Usually I
have to boost the color, especially of clusters. Not this time. I
don't know why this turned out so differently as I didn't process it any
differently.

Sorry no faint fuzzies in the background. Just too much dust and gas in
ours to let me see anything beyond. Image taken September 17, 2009.
I'm not gaining on my backlog.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".