The constellation of Cassiopeia is a wonderful place to lose yourself on an Autumn night. It holds many objects of interest for all instruments, binoculars to light buckets. As it lies along the Milky Way, open clusters abound. Two of my favorite open clusters are in this constellation. There are also emission nebulae and a couple of galaxies. The following list of objects is just a sampling of those inhabiting this region.
M-52 - This beautiful open cluster is about 12' in diameter, and is composed of relatively bright stars. The cluster is relatively concentrated to the center, and is dominated by a bright red star, and is well detached from the stellar background. It lies less than a degree away from NGC 7635, the Bubble Nebula, which is a target for larger instruments.
M-103 - This is a relatively small open cluster, about 8' in diameter. It contains about 20 relatively bright stars, and is loosely gathered. It is seen through the finder scope or binoculars as a slightly hazy patch.
NGC 185/147 These are both small and faint elliptical galaxies which are of some interest as they are members of our Local Group. They appear to be distant satellites of the Great Andromeda Galaxy.
NGC 281 - This is a large emission nebula which is faintly seen in binoculars, but really needs aperture to appreciate. Seen well with a UHC filter, it shows a rough triangle or kidney bean shape with a curving, comma shaped appendage extending to the south. Dark patches here and there add interest to the view. This relatively unknown object deserves closer scrutiny.
NGC 457 - The "Owl" Cluster. This fine cluster is composed of 75-100 bright stars which form the shape of an owl with spread wings and the bright double star Phi Cas as its eyes. This cluster and its distinctive shape are easily seen in binoculars.
NGC 663 - Lying very close to M-103, this fine open cluster is more impressive than that object. It is somewhat resolved in binoculars, and is well detached from the background. It consists of 10-12 bright stars and about 50 fainter stars, and is moderately concentrated to the center.
NGC 7788/90 - These two open clusters lie directly north of the previous object, and are easily fit into the same field of view. While not as glitzy as the Double Cluster in Perseus, they do make a nice pair. 7788 is about 4-5' in diameter and is composed of about 10-12 stars. 7790 is a bit larger and brighter. Well worth the look.
NGC 7789 - One of my favorite objects, this cluster is about 15' in diameter and composed of hundreds of stars. The stars are about 10-11 magnitude, but their numbers and compact size makes this open cluster resemble a loosely gathered globular cluster. I consider this a real showpiece object.
Alpha Cassiopeiae - An easily split pair. The yellow primary is very bright compared to the faint blue secondary.
Eta Cassiopeiae - This is a very pretty and easily split double star which shows a yellow-white primary and a red-gold secondary.