NGC 7023 (vdB 139, LBN 487) / Cr 427 (Lund 973) Bright Nebula / Open Cluster in Cepheus
Located at: RA 21 hours 01 minutes 36 seconds, Dec +68 degrees 10 minutes 00 seconds
Size: 14' / 4.0'; Magnitude: 7.1 / 13.8; Class: Reflection / IV 1 p n
North is up
West to the right
| Telescope: |
8" f5 Newtonian reflector |
| Camera: |
ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -15c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56 |
| Image: |
Lumicon Deep Sky filter, 270 minutes (27 x 10 minute subs), 09/14/15/2007 |
| Processing: |
CCDStack 1.3, Photoshop 7.0 |
| Location: |
Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s) |
| Notes: | NGC 7023 is the reflection nebula around the 7.4 magnitude star SAO
19158, centered in this image. Some catalogues list NGC 7023 as an open
cluster ... "Star Clusters", by Brent Archinal and
Steven Hynes, says "This is a reflection nebula with the star
cluster Collinder 427 (Cr 427) involved on
its west side". See this
image from the CDS. In the broader field around NGC 7023 is a very dusty
region, well shown in this wide field color
image by Bernhard Hubl. From the NGC / IC Project: Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 7023NGC 7023 = LBN 487 = Cr 429 21 01 36 +68 10 Size 18x18 17.5" (8/13/88): very prominent unusual nebulosity surrounding mag 7.4 SAO 19158. A dark lane oriented SSW-NNE is following the bright star. Nebulosity may extend to a star 3' SSE which has a halo. 13" (9/11/82): bright, large nebulosity surrounding a mag 7 star. There is a sharp light cut-off on the E side near the bright star, although nebulosity extends beyond. 8" (8/28/81): nebulosity extends south of the mag 7.5 star with averted vision using 100-125x. A very faint star is at the south edge. - by Steve GottliebHistorical Research Notes / Correction for NGC 7023 NGC 7023 is an impressive diffuse nebula in Cygnus, made more so by the obscuring dark cloud surrounding it. It makes a fine sight in a six-inch which will not see deeply enough to pick up what faint stars there are scattered around the nebula -- it appears to stand alone in a large void in the sky. There is no difficulty with the identification, though I am curious as to why JH did not pick it up. The NGC entry is based on a single observation by his father. - Dr. Harold G. Corwin, Jr. |