The Double Cluster

Look up at any point during the year and discover the Double Cluster, first observed by a Greek astronomer over one hundred years before the birth of Christ.

What is Astro Minute?

Welcome to the Astro Minute! I'm Lauren Smyth, and with the help of astronomer and teacher Kelli Smyth, I'll be your tour guide as we explore the secrets of the night sky sixty seconds at a time.

Welcome to the Astro minute, where we’re exploring the universe sixty seconds at a time. I’m Lauren Smyth, and today we’re hunting for the Double Cluster.

Star clusters are gravitationally bound groups of stars which form together in space and time and reveal much about the mysteries of star formation and development. In one hundred thirty BC, Greek astronomer Hipparchus first catalogued the Double Cluster, a pair of open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. The Double Cluster contains at least twenty-thousand solar masses of stars, including many blue-white supermassive stars. Every star you can see in the Double Cluster with binoculars is much, much brighter than our sun.

The Double Cluster is faint, but worth the hunt. To see it, find the w of Cassiopeia, then look a little left of the wider side of the w for a large hazy patch. Binoculars will clearly separate these two beautiful clusters of stars!

That’s your astro minute!