NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3909 is a very large scattered group of fifty to sixty pretty bright stars; I'm not sure that it is a real cluster, however. JH took as its position one of two double stars which he saw in it. The same double served as the source of Brian Skiff's position, too. However, ESO's position, on to the east another 38 seconds of time, is more appropriate for the apparent center of group. ESO made its dimensions roughly 20 by 15 arcmin, but I measure it to be 24 x 14 arcmin. Coincidentally close to the center, and shining right through, is ESO 217-G007, a small Sa or Sb galaxy.

===== NGC 3909 14" (4/5/16 - Coonabarabran, 71x and 142x): at 71x, this very large, scattered cluster contained ~75 stars mag 10-14 in a 20'x14' field, elongated E-W. Many of the stars are arranged in a roughly circular (somewhat boxy) annulus, with relatively few stars in the interior. Stands out reasonable well at low power, but unimpressive at 142x. On the west side is HJ 4476, a 10.1/11.0 pair at 20". A couple of doubles are on the east side, including a 13th mag pair at 14", and near the center is a mag 10.2/11.8 pair at 25".