NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6254 18" (7/14/07): large, gorgeous GC at 225x, extends ~15' in diameter and fills most of the field. The cluster is sharply concentrated with an intense 5' core containing a huge number of resolved mag 13-15 stars over an unresolved background glow and beautiful strings of stars in the halo. At 323x the core is slightly elongated SW-NE, ~5'x4' in size. Strings of stars crisscross the core with a very small triangle of stars at the geometric center. At 393x, one of the 3 stars in this central triangle is a very close double. The core is pretty uniformly rich and evenly resolved and does not compress towards the center. 17.5" (7/15/99): beautifully resolved at 220x. The halo appears to extend to nearly 14' although the star density is very low in the outer edge of the halo. The inner halo is sharply concentrated with a very bright 5'x4' core which is elongated SW-NE. The cluster is highly resolved into mag 12/13 stars from edge to edge (too numerous to count) with the stars very densely packed over the core. A second layer of mag 13/14 stars is superimposed over the core. The halo contains a number of strings including a long string to the south which curves east and a string to the north which curves west. Also two parallel linear strings head north or NNE from the core. 13.1" (6/19/82): very bright, fairly large, intense core richly covered with fairly bright stars. Scores of stars are resolved in the outer halo. 8": bright lively core highly resolved. The outer halo is highly resolved with several long, distinct streamers.