NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 2808 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 200x, this was a stunning showpiece globular in the 24"! The central region displays an unusually strong concentration with a super-intense 2' core that was unresolved. A very bright, small halo surrounds the core that is mottled but mostly unresolved. The outer halo resolved into perhaps 150-200 stars mag 14.5 and fainter. The halo gradually thins out in resolved stars out to 10' diameter. The core was smaller but still unresolved at 350x. The overall appearance of the three brightness levels mentioned above is unusually symmetrical. 18" (7/8/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 171x, this bright globular (ranked 10th brightest at V = 6.1) is fairly large, ~10' diameter and very compressed with a blazing 2' core. The halo is noticeably elongated, nearly 3:2. A dense swarm of mag 14 and fainter stars are resolved in the halo and around the edges of the core but the inner central core was unresolved. At 228x, there appeared to be some very faint stars lanes streaming into the halo, which were barely unresolved but looked like small tentacles. A mag 10/10.6 double at 16" is outside the cluster ~10' ESE. This is by far the brightest concentration class I globular and the only one easily resolved. 13.1" (2/20/04 - Costa Rica): this very bright globular is large and elongated, ~8'x6' SW-NE increasing to 2' bright core and a blazing 40" nucleus. At 144x, this cluster is mottled but with no obvious resolution. At 166x a large number of extremely faint stars (mag 14-15) pop in and out of view over the entire disc, though the resolved stars could not be held steadily. Located 1.8¡ NNE of mag 4.0 Alpha Volantis. Naked-eye (7/8/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): faintly visible naked-eye.