NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 1854 and NGC 1855 are the "core" and "halo," respectively, of a stellar association in LMC. JH picked up NGC 1854 in five different sweeps, but only noticed NGC 1855 in one -- looking at DSS1, I can see why he recorded the the objects this way. The "core" is a much more prominent object than the "halo." When I first looked at this, I made the center of NGC 1855 slightly preceding NGC 1854 and added, "JH obviously has them reversed." Looking at them now (November 2013) on the DSS2R, I would judge JH closer to the "truth" of the positions than I was. I've adjusted the position of NGC 1855 accordingly. (Sorry about that!) Brent Archinal was, as far as I know, the first to point out the core/halo structure of the object(s) in "Star Clusters."

===== NGC 1854 24" (4/7/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): I revisited this remarkable field after viewing NGC 1850 (located 6' NW) the previous night. At 200x this cluster appeared very bright, large, round, with a brilliant core. At 350x, it was resolved into numerous faint stars around the edges of the intense core. Up to a couple of dozen very faint stars popped in and out of visibility. The core is noticeably elongated N-S and is surrounded by a large, much fainter halo. There is a small clump of stars at the NW edge. NGC 1858, a large star cluster and nebulosity, lies 4' SE. 18" (7/10/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): fairly bright, fairly small, oval 4:3 NW-SE, 0.8'x0.6', moderate concentration. There is a small knot attached to the north edge. Located 6' SE of NGC 1850 with NGC 1858 4.5' further SE in a region of the LMC packed with clusters.