NGC 7031

NGC 7031 (Lund 979, Cr 430) Open Cluster in Cygnus

Located at:* RA 21 hours 06 minutes 52 seconds, Dec +50 degrees 51 minutes 00 seconds

Size:* 15'; Magnitude: 9.1; Class: III 2 m

North is up

West to the right

Telescope:	8" f5 Newtonian reflector
Camera:	ST-8XME, self-guided, binned 1x1, temp -20c, camera control MaxIm DL 4.56
Image:	Lumicon Red filter, 500 minutes (50 x 10 minute subs), 07/15/16/2011; seeing 2.1-3.1 FWHM per CCDStack
Processing:	CCDStack 2.24.4110.20701, Photoshop 7.0
Location:	Rolling Roof Observatory, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (+34d 13m 29s -118h 52m 20s)
Notes:*	Seems to be some confusion of the size/position of this open cluster. "Star Clusters", by Brent Archinal and Steven Hynes, has the same data (Comments: "Archinal: Group of 10 brighter stars of this cluster all on NE side ...") as my charting software (Megastar v5.0.12), which I have used in the heading ... The most obvious groping of stars, just Northeast (upper left) of the center, is what the CDS and the NGC/IC Project consider the cluster: Data from the CDS is: RA 21h 07m 12.8s, +50d 52m 55s, which is the position of the 'bright' star of the obvious group Northeast of center. From the NGC/IC Project: Contemporary Visual Observation(s) for NGC 7031 NGC 7031 = Cr 430 = Lund 979 = OCL-210 21 07 12 +50 51 V = 9.1; Size 5 17.5": at 220x, about two dozen stars mag 11-15 in a 6' diameter. At the E edge is close double star 11.4/11.8 with a third mag 11.5 star close SW. A nice string of stars is along the N side extending NW from the trio including a close double star 12/13 1' N. A mag 11 star is on S side but the rest of the stars are mag 13-15. Not very rich but stands out in a rich field. The cluster is fairly scattered except for this region with brighter stars. At 410x, used sequence of magnitudes in Clark's Visual Astronomy to positively identify a faint V = 16.1 star and suspected a V = 16.3 star. - by Steve Gottlieb The Dark Nebula partially captured to the Southwest (lower right) is LDN 1000 (from the CDS)