NGC 1857

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H VII-033

Discovered in 1786 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a cluster of pretty compressed pS stars, considerably rich, contains one large star, the rest are all of a size."

Webb

In the 5th edition of Webb's Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes it is described as "a splendid region."

Webb reports 17 stars, mostly of 10th or 11th mag, spread across a 7' field, using a 10" reflector at 120x.

Published comments

Trumpler, R.J. (1928)

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 9' and the class as 2 2 m.

Doig, P. (1925)

Doig, P. (1925) Notes on the nebulae and clusters in Webb's 'Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes' (Sixth edition, Vol.ii). Part I. M.N.R.A.S., 35(5), 159.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 8.5 mag open cluster.

Melotte, P.J. (1915)

A catalogue of star clusters shown on Franklin-Adams chart plates. Mem.R.A.S., 60(5), 175-186.

Raab, S. (1922)

Raab, S. (1922) A research on open clusters. Lund Medd. Astron. Obs. Ser. II, 28, 1.

Discussed, based of F-A plates.

Burnham

Burnham calls it a pretty large, pretty rich, pretty compressed cluster 9' across with 45 stars of 8th mag and fainter.

Modern observations

Anonymous

This hazy little open cluster was discovered by William Herschel, and in a finder shows as a hazy patch surrounding an orange 7th mag star.

Ancient City Astron.Club (1980)

Listed by the Herschel Club, described as "9' in size, counted 30 stars, no definite shape evident, poor inconspicuous grouping loose and scattered. 6-inch, 35x."

W.S. Houston

Houston reports using a small occulting mask on his eyepiece to view the cluster by obscuring the 7th mag star, and notes the truly improved appearance of the cluster, the sky darkening and stars at least half a magnitude fainter appearing.

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "7M; 7.5' diameter; 40-plus 8M and dimmer members; fairly rich and compressed; 2 degrees S of OPN CL Coll-62."

Brian Skiff

Brian Skiff, using a 6-inch reflector, notes that it is easy to sweep across it unwittingly. It appears as a weak but definite glow hiding at the Southern edge of a much larger, very loose group of a dozen or so brighter stars known as Czernik 20. He adds that he has seen about 40 stars in NGC 1857 with a 10". Skiff notes that the glare from the 7th mag star hampers efficient viewing of the cluster.

WDS: cen * = ADS 3898.

6cm - vis as cloud around m8.5 cen *.

15cm - 15 *s @ 84x.

- 25 *s, not consp as cl. BS, 30Aug1981, Anderson Mesa.

- mod rich cl of rel f *s around m7 orsh *. 12' diam, 50 *s counted @ 140x, mostly m12+ except five brtr *s. the f *s not much concen. consp with averted vis @ 50x since cl is surrounded by minor dk area. BS, 24Dec1989,Anderson Mesa.

25cm - fairly f. m8 cen * obliterates it @ lox. 10' diam, 40 *s m10+. not impressive.

- 180x: dominated by m7.5 cen *. 30 fntr *s, mostly m12+. 7'-8' diam, irreg round w/o concen. BS, Roof.

- around m7.5 orange *. 10' diam, 40 *s mostly m12+. not much concen around br *. BS, 30Aug1981, Anderson Mesa.

30cm - well res w/46 *s in 9' cl. four brtr *s w/one just N of center. sl concen. CBL, Roof.

Steve Gottlieb

Cr 61 & Mel 32 & OCL-428

05 20.1 +39 21

13: 50-60 stars resolved surrounding mag 7.5 SAO 57903 near the center. This is a very pleasing cluster and is rich in faint mag 13/14 stars.

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2010 3 8 21:38:30

Observing site: Little Tycho Observatory

Telescope: C-8

[5h 20m 12s, 39° 21m 0s] A cluster of faint stars, on the edge of visibility, with a bright yellow 7mv star in it's center.