The 1.27° x 0.85° Celestron Origin field of view centred on 7 Persei (Chi Persei) also encompasses 8 Persei and open cluster NGC 869 (h Persei). The field is filled with bright stars as you can see in my October 2024 image. It is also one of the best collections of red and blue supergiants in the Milky Way, located at distances and extinction levels that help to simplify research. Links to the Simbad Database for the labeled objects are listed below as action buttons.
NGC 869 is one of the two open clusters in the often cited Perseus Double Cluster, the other being NGC 884 (Chi Persei). Membership to these clusters has been studied by de Burgos et al. from high-resolution spectra of candidate stars (see reference below). According to this reference, members of the Per OB1 association, which includes the Double Cluster, are marked with asterisks (*) on the Simbad Database link buttons at the bottom of the page.
- "High-resolution spectroscopic study of massive blue and red supergiants in Per OB1", A. de Burgos, S. Simon-Díaz, D.J. Lennon, R. Dorda, I. Negueruela, M.A. Urbaneja, L.R. Patrick, and A. Herrero, Astronomy & Astrophysics 643, 2020.