NGC 1907

Image gallery

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H VII-039

Discovered in 1787 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a pretty compressed cluster of small stars, 4' diameter."

Birr Castle/Lord Rosse

Observations with the 72-inch f/8.8 speculum telescope at Birr Castle noted "Dec 28, 1856. Neat little cluster; its centre consists of about 40 or 50 stars; the outlying stars are arranged in curved branches."

In the 5th edition of Webb's Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes it is described as "d'Arrest: very large cluster of minute stars arranged in curves."

Published comments

Trumpler, R.J. (1928)

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 5' and the class as 1 2 m.

Photo index

Photo Index by Jim Lucyk: Deep Sky #13 Wi85 p8, 12, Vehrenberg's Atlas of DS Splendors (3ed) p59.

Observer: John Callender

Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA

Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: poor

Time: Sat Mar 1 05:15:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 86

Noticed in the same 48x field as M38 in the 8-inch: a smaller, sparser cluster that was barely resolvable.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 10.5 mag open cluster.

Bailey, S.I. (1908)

"cluster, coarse."

Bailey, S.I. (1908) A catalogue of bright stars and nebulae. Ann.Harv.Coll.Obs., 60(8), 199.

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.

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.

Doig, P. (1926)

Doig, P. (1926) "A Catalogue of Estimated Parallaxes of 112 Nebulae, Open clusters and Star Groups", Vol 36 (4), p 107-115.

"small well-defined loose cluster." He gives the approx. diameter as 5 arcmin.

Modern observations

Ancient City Astron.Club (1980)

Listed by the Herschel Club, described as "tight small cluster, intermediate rich, some nebulosity seen, used averted vision. M38 visible in the same eyepiece field. 8-inch, 48x."

This cluster is about 7' across and of mag 8.2 Sky Catalogue 2000 lists 30 stars here, but most observers see half that number. Several amateurs have commented on a faint background glow. Walter Scott Houston wonders whether this glow could be attributed to nebulosity associated with the cluster. See also NGC 1893. The cluster lies half a degree south of M38, and is a smaller, fainter but more compact version of the former. In a 6" at 50X it appears as an eerie, partially resolved glow. Burnham calls it a pretty compressed, pretty rich cluster 5' across with 40 stars 10th mag and fainter.

Steve Gottlieb

Cr 66 & Mel 35 & OCL-434

05 28.1 +35 19

17.5: 50 stars in a 7' diameter. Includes a few bright stars but very rich

in fainter stars in the central region. A wide pair of mag 9.5-10 stars is

at the S end (9.6/9.9 at 52") and a closer pair is off the NE side (h699 =

10.4/11.6 at 10")

13: dense, about three dozen stars.

8: rich, glowing cluster, compact, includes two bright stars to the south.

Brian Skiff

Hoag: centered 3' NNW of wide pair.

6cm - just barely res @ 28x, located 4' N of m9 pair. CBL, Roof.

7cm - sm fairly f cl w/two m9 *s on S edge @ 30x. 50x shows about a doz *s

plus haze. BS, 26Nov1992, Anderson Mesa.

15cm - 30' S of M38. vcompact cl 3' diam, 30-50 *s m11+. appears neb at lox, res

@ 90x. BS, 25Oct1970, FtL.

- 30 *s counted. central area reminds HM of a hornet's-nest-shape. HM,

Everglades(?).

- outliers not consp. 20 *s. pair on NE res. BS, 6Oct1981, Anderson Mesa.

- mod f well concen cl. 140x: 70 *s in 8' diam, m11.5+. core 1'.5 across

has 25 *s. outliers extend past wide br pair SSE as far as closer pair

farther NE. little line of three *s aligned NNE-SSW on W side of core;

brtr * on ESE side of core. BS, 4Dec1989, Anderson Mesa.

25cm - br and compact. 5' diam w/40 *s. br pair on S, 5' away. core is neb at

180x. BS, FtL?

- 190x: main part 5' diam, outliers to 10' (m10.5-11) past wide pair SSE.

40 *s. BS, 6Oct1981, Anderson Mesa.

30cm - a pretty round cl 6' diam w/40 *s. brtst * is in cen w/in 1'.5 hole.

there is a concen of *s to NW of this hole. cen conden, 2' diam, like a

mini-M11. CBL, Roof.

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2010 12 15 20:53:5

Observing site: Little Tycho Observatory

Telescope: C-8

[5h 28m 0s, 35° 19m 0s] A small scatter of ~ 20 9...mv stars, a degree south of M 38.