NGC 869 (also known as h Persei) is an open cluster located 7460 light years away in the constellation of Perseus.

It is sometimes claimed that Bayer did not resolve the pair into two patches of nebulosity, and that χ refers to the Double Cluster and h to a nearby star.

[3] Bayer's Uranometria chart for Perseus does not show them as nebulous objects, but his chart for Cassiopeia does, and they are described as Nebulosa Duplex in Schiller's Coelum Stellatum Christianum, which was assembled with Bayer's help.

[4] The clusters are both located in the Perseus OB1 association, a few hundred light years apart from each other.

The clusters are visible with the unaided eye between the constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia as a brighter patch in the winter Milky Way.