salutations celestial sight seers i'm david fuller from eyes on the sky ngc
457 as a deep sky object name doesn't sound very exciting so let me provide you with a few more
colorful ones for this open star cluster: the owl cluster. the dragonfly cluster.
the et cluster. the question then is what will you see when you find it? at nearly 8 000 light
years away ngc 457 is one of the more distant open clusters that we will view in this catalog
of 40 objects. the two eyes are magnitudes 5 and 7 respectively with the remaining stars
largely around 12th to 15th magnitude while the dimmer ones will be difficult to see in smaller
telescopes or under severe light pollution. the general shape of the cluster is still readily seen
from most places and the brighter eyes make it easy to find. let's learn how.
to find ngc 457 look for the W or M shape of the constellation cassiopeia in the northern sky.
if you're not sure where to look for it check out my shapes in the sky cassiopeia video for how to
find it a link to that is in the description of this video. although ngc 457 is closer to
delta cassiopeiae we will start from the central star in the M - navi - located here, then a short
move about three degrees this way will help us reach the cluster. more on that in a moment.
with a magnified finder scope with a seven degrees field of view center the star navi
- this star - is second magnitude, but there's a fifth magnitude star very close to it
that most finder scopes should also show. if not use the red dot finder method i described next.
we will use these two stars to aim towards the cluster. draw a line from the dimmer star
through navi and then place navi at the very edge of your field of view. at this
point you should already be able to see the 5th magnitude star of one eye of the cluster
and perhaps the seventh magnitude dimmer eye. then center that area in your finder scope.
for telescopes with a red dot finder this cluster is a bit more challenging but it can be found. we
will look at two stars and imagine a triangle shape for the third point. start at navi then
move towards delta cassiopeiae then turn at a right angle outside from cassiopeia's shape
about two-thirds of the distance of the stars that you can see in the triangle we are imagining. your
red dot finder should be located about here. that should place the cluster in a low magnification
eyepiece view. if not slowly spiral around the area until the eyes of the cluster come into view
or if you can see the 3.7 magnitude star zeta cassiopeiae that is just off the star shedar
use that same line to draw a parallel line from delta a similar distance. as always start with
low magnification to center the object first. with this cluster it is best framed somewhere between
one degree for the telescopic field of view. then look at the body of the shape below the brighter
eye star. can you see the more orange looking star here? that is a pulsating variable M-class star
reaching the end of its life. the color difference here should be striking. if you like this video
and it helped you find this object successfully check out the other 39 telescopes on the sky
objects i'll lead you step by step to the best and easiest objects to find from the northern
hemisphere. and don't forget to subscribe to this channel by clicking the subscribe button
just below this video to the right on youtube. i make regular updates on how to find all kinds
of interesting objects in the sky naked eye with binoculars telescopes and occasional reviews too
and have since 2010. thanks for watching i'm david fuller wishing you clear and dark skies.