8 replies to this topic

[Jef De Wit]

In my long-running project to visually observe all NGC and IC clusters (both open star clusters and asterisms), I sketched four faint NGC specimens on a dark location in the north of France.

 

NGC 6791 in Lyra is a very faint open cluster that looks more like a resolved globular cluster on DSS images. I was able to pick up a few stars from the cluster, but saw the object as part of a larger group of stars. A red star made the whole thing quite attractive visually.

 

 

NGC 6704 in Scutum was unimpressive but quite visible in my 30 cm Newton.

 

 

NGC 7055 in Cepheus is an asterism and that's what it looked like. With more magnification, barely more stars appeared.

 

 

NGC 7226, also in Cepheus, needed quite a bit of magnification to still make some faint stars visible from this small open cluster.

 

[bphaneuf]

These are beautiful Jef!  Great variety in their characteristics that you've captured.  "Long term project" indeed!!!  How far along would you say you are? 

-b

[UnityLover]

These are beautiful Jef!  Great variety in their characteristics that you've captured.  "Long term project" indeed!!!  How far along would you say you are? 

-b

For reference, there are 640 open clusters and 196 globular clusters in the New General catalog (The original 7840)

[bphaneuf]

For reference, there are 640 open clusters and 196 globular clusters in the New General catalog (The original 7840)

Thanks?  And in the IC?
 

[UnityLover]

Thanks?  And in the IC?
 

Numbers may be a bit high by the way, because there are some duplicates in the NGC catalogue.

 

In the IC catalogue, according to sky safari, 47 star clusters, but two of which are also messier objects.

 

[Jef De Wit]

I use the database of DeepskyLog (almost completely based on the work of Steinicke):

 

- NGC open clusters: 727 (295 observed)

- NGC asterisms: 145 (92 observed)

- IC open clusters: 41 (18 observed)

- IC asterisms: 61 (34 observed)

 

Of course they are not all visible from my latitude. I have still some 60 objects on my todo-list. Most of them are (really) faint, so I can't observe them from my light polluted home.

 

BTW, I observed allready all NGC and IC globular clusters visible from my latitude.

[bphaneuf]

That's commitment   Well done, sir.  Love how we all benefit from each other's work.

Edited by bphaneuf, 11 November 2024 - 01:17 PM.

[frank5817]

Jef,

 

Your sketches here are very well done.

 

frank

[azure1961p]

Jef these are beautifully done!

 

Pete