NGC 1788 (LBN 916) Bright Nebula in Orion

Located at: RA 05 hours 06 minutes 55 seconds, Dec -03 degrees 20 minutes 15 seconds

Size: 5.5' x 3.0'; Magnitude: --; Class: Reflection

North is up

West to the right

Telescope:

 8" f5 Newtonian reflector
Camera:

 ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -20c & -25c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56
Image:

Lumicon Red filter, 710 minutes (71 x 10 minute subs), 01/28/31 & 02/1/2011; seeing 2.6-3.9 FWHM per CCDStack
Processing:

CCDStack 2.17.3996.27523, Photoshop 7.0
Location:

 Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s)
Notes: NGC 1788 is the bright nebula complex just to the East (left) of center ... the little dark patch just below may be LDN 1616 ... this information from the CDS ... LDN 1616 (@ 05h 06m 55s, -03d 22m 09s). LDN 1615 (centered @ 05h 05m 30s, -03d 26m 00s) is apparently the large stream of nebulosity(?) to the West (right).

From the NGC / IC Project:

Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 1788
NGC 1788 = LBN 916
05 06 53.2 -03 20 27
Size 8x5

17.5" (2/9/02): at 144x this is a bright reflection nebula involving two mag 10 
and 11.5 stars.  The nebulosity is irregularly bright in a 4'x3' region 
elongated NW-SE and locally very bright in a knot surrounding the mag 11.5 star 
near the SE end.  Enhanced by a Deep Sky filter at low power.  The brighter mag 
10 star ~2' NW has a faint companion and is also encased in the glow as well as 
a couple of other fainter stars.  A faint extension fans out to the NE from the 
mag 11 star and some haze is suspected to the south, increasing the size to  ~7' 
and involving a few additional stars.  N1788 is located within a bright 
trapezoid consisting of three mag 8.5-9 stars and a mag 10 star (sides 9'-13')

17.5" (12/23/89): bright, fairly large, locally very bright surrounding a mag 12 
star on the south end.  This star appears slightly nonstellar as difficult to 
separate from bright haze.  Extends NW to include a mag 10 star and three other 
faint stars are involved in the brightest portion.  Very faint nebulosity also 
extends to N and further E.

8": moderately bright reflection nebula, large, brightest in center, two stars 
involved, extends to E.

- by Steve Gottlieb