NGC 6802

Remarks

A small telescopic cluster lying on the east end of Collinder 399, the Coathanger.

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H VI-014

Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a cluster of extremely small and very compressed stars, a parallelogram of 4' long, 2' broad."

Published comments

Trumpler, R.J. (1928)

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 5' and the class as 3 1 mE.

Photo index

Photo Index by Jim Lucyk: Sky&Tel. 9/86 p317.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 12.0 mag open cluster.

Modern observations

Walter Scott Houston

Houston calls it a faint open cluster, about 3' in diameter; "I've have a good view of it with my 4-inch Clark refractor when the sky was clear and dark." He wrote: "Even small telescopes reveal the cluster as a 5' patch, elongated north-south, inside a quadrilateral of 9th to 11th magnitude stars. A fairly large instrument will resolve the cluster into members of magnitude 13 and fainter.

Mitsky, Dave (IAAC)

Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)

Instrument: 12.5-inch equatorial reflector Location: Harrisburg, Pa, U.S.A.

Light pollution: moderate Transparency: poor Seeing: good

Time: Tue Jul 8 06:20:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 207

Despite the less than ideal conditions on Tuesday morning (very hazy and light polluted skies) I was able to observe NGC 6802, one of my favorite dim star clusters. This small (3.5') Herschel 400 open cluster lies about 1 degree northeast of the Coathanger (Collinder 399). Using a 16mm Brandon Erfle (129x) and a 12.5" Cave Newtonian I was barely able to see NGC 6802 as an eleventh magnitude powder-like spray of stars. While in the area I also took a look at NGC 6800 and Stock 1, two nearby open clusters. NGC 6800 is a moderate sized group of over 30 stars and Stock 1 is a large cluster with many bright members.

Brian Skiff

15cm - 60x: lies inside a triangle (two are pairs). a few *s res.

- partially res in to ~20 *s of m13.5+ @ 140x. rectangular oval outline 4'x2'.5 in pa10 (seems sl off from N-S). a few brtr *s N side, much graniness and some haze. BS, 22May1988, Anderson Mesa.

- consp fine-grained fuzz @ 50x, partially res @ 80x. 195x shows bar in pa15 about half height of lg trapezoid of br *s that contains it, bar elong in 3:1 ratio. brtst *s m13.5 nr N end and one on E edge of bar. many more nr threshold, about tow doz w/o much fudging. BS, 5Sep1989, Anderson Mesa.

25cm - fairly f, elong N-S. a small triangle on N end and a wide pair to NW. about seven *s res plus gran.

30cm - 15 *s @ 238x w/f bkgrnd haze. small trapezium of m13 *s in N section. 3'x2'. 5' NW & NW are pairs.

Contemporary observations

Magda Streicher

2006 July 18

Alldays (22.50S, 20.12E, 770m).

12-inch f/10 SCT (76x, 218x)

Conditions: Good

For the first time in my astronomy life I have the feeling of approaching a distant little town with flickering lights envelope in mistiness (12" – 76x). This very elongated cluster in a north to south direction shines soft with close flickering lights upon one another in the distant dark of night. The similar streetlights topped with a soft glow of light pollution, draped against the background of a distant dark mountain. This dainty cluster is situated at the east end of the "Coat hanger Cluster".