Perseus, the Hero, is my kind of constellation.  By that I mean that it has lots of different types of deep sky objects to observe.  I get tired by having to chase nothing buy galaxies or nothing but open clusters.  I need variety and Perseus can provide that, so let’s take a look.

Messier 76 is a small planetary nebula.  Remember planetary nebulae are the remnants of stars about the size of our sun.  These stars puff off the outer layers of gas and then light them up so we see a variety of glowing shapes among the stars.  Using the 6" f/8 refractor and a 22mm eyepiece shows M 76 as pretty bright, small and elongated 1.5X1 in a position angle of 45 degrees, this means to the NE.  At first glance it looked like a fuzzy double star.  Raising the power with an 8.8mm eyepiece shows a dark lane between two sections of nebulosity.  The western portion is brighter.  There is a star in the west section and it is seen for short "blinks" but never held steady.  

Moving up in aperture to an 11 inch SCT shows the dark lane down the middle of M 76 as easy.  The overall shape is much like a small box, it is elongated 2X1.  Averted vision brings out a very faint outer shell of nebulosity; this is most obvious above the main bright section.  A nebula filter shows this object with more contrast, but does not bring out any new detail.

NGC 869 and NGC 884 form the famous Double Cluster.  There is no other place in the sky where two open clusters that are bright and easily resolved are so close to each other.  Using an ED 80 rich field refractor is perfect for this type of cluster.  At 35X I see each cluster as very bright, large, rich and moderately compressed.  Each cluster is very well detached from the Milky Way background.  The ED 80 can resolve 100 stars in both clusters at 60X.  There is an obvious orange star between the two clusters.  

Even from within the light pollution of Phoenix, Arizona an eight inch SCT with a 35mm Ultima eyepiece will display both clusters.  From a backyard observatory, each cluster has about 50 stars resolved and there is a nice triple star that is in the shape of an equilateral triangle involved.

Messier 34 is a very nice open cluster.  Using the ED80 with a 14mm eyepiece at a site far from the lights of Phoenix shows it as bright and large, with 18 stars resolved.  This cluster is well detached from the Milky Way.  There is a pretty wide dark lane to the south of the cluster.

M 34 in the 6" refractor is bright, large, somewhat compressed and rich.  I counted 38 stars involved, of magnitudes 8 and fainter.  There are a dozen pretty bright members in curved chains and many faint members.  This cluster is well detached from the Milky Way.

Moving up to the 11 inch scope and a 22mm eyepiece shows off two nice pairs of stars including one almost dead center, they are a matched 10th magnitude double, both white.  There is a beautiful chain of stars on the SW side of the cluster that ends in a medium orange star.  I counted 44 stars in this showpiece cluster.

NGC 1245 is an open cluster; in the 6" f/8 it is faint, pretty large, pretty rich and compressed.  15 stars are resolved and there is a fuzzy background with direct vision.  Averted vision shows another 20 stars at the limit of the 6 inch.   The larger aperture of the 11 inch allowed me to count 55 members at 125X.  It also shows lovely looping chains of stars throughout the cluster.  Going to 200X brings out several delicate pairs that are only seen at higher power.

NGC 1499 is the California Nebula, a glowing gas cloud that does indeed display the shape of that western state.  It is however, a pretty low surface brightness object and therefore needs to be observed from a dark location for best results.  In the ED 80 with a nebular filter it is pretty faint, very large and very elongated (3X1).  This pretty faint glow is better with averted vision.

Trying the 6" on this object shows it somewhat better, but now it is larger than the field of view of the 35mm eyepiece.  Using a nebular filter shows it as faint, extremely large, and elongated in PA 15.  This nebula is a low surface brightness glow across the entire field.

NGC 1528 is an open cluster that has been a favorite of mine for many years.  Using the ED80 and a 14mm eyepiece it is bright, large and well detached.  There are 19 stars that are easily resolved.  Averted vision really makes this cluster sparkle with another 20 or so stars against a fuzzy background.

With the 11 inch scope and a 22mm eyepiece I counted 62 stars resolved in NGC 1528 and saw several dark lanes that cut through this cluster and partition it into unequal sections.  There are several chains of bright and pretty bright stars in this cluster.