NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 1712. The first of three "clusters" involved in nebulosity in the Large Magellanic Cloud, this has only one observation by JH while the others, NGC 1722 and NGC 1727, have three each. Also, JH notes them as "the [second/third] of a series of clustering patches," while NGC 1712 has no such comment. Even though JH calls it "A pB, S cluster", it is actually composed of several clumps of stars, including foreground stars, covering an area of about 3 arcmin by 2 arcmin. Since it is ill-defined, the positions from various sources are not in very good agreement. Nevertheless, the identity is pretty clear.

===== NGC 1712 18" (7/10/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): first of three clusters with nebulosity including NGC 1722 + IC 2111 4' NE and NGC 1727 8' NE. At 128x it appeared as an irregularly shaped, 4' nebulous haze just north of an attractive mag 10.7/11.5 double star (17"). A half dozen faint stars are embedded in the haze (part of LMC-N79) besides the two brighter stars at the south edge. This is a young LMC cluster and forms the western portion of association LH 1. 18" (7/9/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): this is the first of three nebulous clusters with NGC 1722 3.9' NE and NGC 1727 7.7' NE. NGC 1712 appears as a fairly large knotty region of stars and possible weak nebulosity (within LMC-N79), ~4' diameter. A mag 10.7/11.5 double (separation 17") is at the south edge.