LACERTA
by Steve Coe
13" f/5.6 unless noted

NGC 7209 Bright, large, rich, pretty compressed in a 15 arc minute area at 100X. I counted 59 stars, many in lovely chains that fade out into a Milky Way background. There is a smooth progression of magnitudes from 9th to 12th within this cluster.

Sentinel 8/10 S+T 11X80 easy, 6 * and some fuzz.
60X--Bright, large, rich, somewhat compressed, several dark lanes in field. 51 stars counted, mags 10..... several nice chains and pairs.

NGC 7223 Extremely faint, small, round and not brighter in the middle at 135X. This galaxy is just a small spot with low surface brightness adrift in a pretty rich field.

NGC 7231 100X Very faint, pretty small, very little brighter in the middle, elongated 1.8 X 1 in PA 90. Averted vision helps some, but this is a tough galaxy.

NGC 7243 Bright, large and not compressed at 100X. 29 stars were counted in this rather coarse cluster. A dark lane divides the cluster into 1/3 and 2/3 groups.

Sentinel 8/10 S+T 11X80 obviously a Cluster, 11 stars with fuzz. 10X50s nice view, many dark lanes in FOV, nice Cl 60X--Cl, B, vL, nC, 66 stars counted mags 9.... many pretty bright stars involved. Lovely yellow-yellow double star in center of cluster.

NGC 7245 Pretty faint, pretty large, somewhat elongated (4'x6'), rich and quite compressed at 100X

NGC 7248 Very faint, small, round and has a stellar nucleus in moments of good seeing.

NGC 7250 Faint, small and elongated 4x1 in PA 135 at 100X.
There is a 12th mag star at the tip of the south side.

NGC 7295 This object was marked "Nonexistent" in the RNGC and as far as my observation, that is correct. There was no obvious candidate for this cluster at the given location.

NGC 7296 Pretty bright, small and not compressed. I counted 18 stars at 200X. This group is fan-shaped and there is a nice yellow star at the apex of the fan.

Sentinel S=6 T=8 13" 100X--pretty bright, pretty large, somewhat rich, little compressed. 19 stars counted mags 10...13. They form a "fish-hook" loop of stars with a nice double star in the inside of the hook.

IC 1434 Pretty faint, pretty large and irregularly round at 100X.
This cluster is not rich with 22 stars counted but several dark lanes pass in front of the area making black "fingers" that penetrate this grouping. On a much better night I counted 38 stars as members of this cluster and saw it as pretty rich and considerably
compressed at 150X. This cluster showed off several lovely curved chains of stars.

IC 1442 Pretty bright, somewhat rich, elongated "V" shape with 16 stars counted at 100X. This cluster is difficult to pick out of dense Milky Way field in a good sweep area. There is a nice orange member among 22 stars at 150X on a better night. The orange star is about 10th mag and the rest of the cluster is 12 to 14th mag.

IC 5217 Pretty faint, small, round and not brighter in the middle at 135X. This grey dot is about twice the size of the seeing disk and grows with averted vision. In a nice Milky Way field at 150X. There is a faint star on the NE edge--not the central star. It has a pretty tough low surface brightness disk at 220X.

PK102- 2.1 (Abell 79) 13" S=6 T=8 100X--extremely faint, pretty large, round, not brighter in the middle. A very difficult smooth disk that is about 1 arcmin in size. It was suspected without the filter, only 150X and UHC would confirm that I really saw this toughie on a good night at Sentinel.

UGC 11909 Faint, pretty small, much elongated at 2.5 X 1 in PA 10 and little brighter in the middle at 150X. This galaxy is tough to pick out in a rich Milky Way field. There is a double star of 11th mag on the northern tip.

Double Stars in Lacerta

Struve 2894 Easy split at 100X, Nice pair white and royal blue

8 LAC Nice quadruple star, all split at 135X, all white, one star 7th mag, three others 10th mag.

h 975 Easy split at 100X, white and light blue