NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6546. JH says of this, "The middle of a great and rich cluster in the milky way" (he never capitalized "milky way"). He listed the NPD only to a full minute of arc; his habit is to specify a precision of an arcsecond, so this is clearly intended to indicate more uncertainty than usual. In the DSS images, the object does indeed appear to be a cluster superposed on a Milky Way star cloud. As usual, the star cloud appears defined by the absorption patches surrounding it, and I have a suspicion that the edges of the cluster are similarly defined. Also as usual, astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic studies may provide an answer to the question, "Is this a real cluster?"

===== NGC 6546 17.5" (8/27/92): bright, large, scattered, 10' diameter. Including three mag 9 stars on the east side, 10 mag 11-12 stars mag and roughly 70 stars total. Between the three mag 9 stars is a very faint, rich group of 15-20 stars. Near the west edge is a faint, very close double. The majority of the cluster stars are fairly evenly distributed with no other dense regions. Situated in a rich Milky Way field. 8" (8/23/84): scattered group of about 40 stars with 20 stars easily visible and three brighter mag 9 stars on the east side, elongated ~E-W. A mag 8 star is in the field to the NE.