NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6742 24" (10/4/13): picked up unfiltered at 200x but an excellent contrast gain adding an OIII filter. Appeared fairly bright, round, 30"-35" diameter, slightly unevenly lit. At 280x and 375x unfiltered, an extremely faint star (mag 16?) is barely inside the west edge and a mag 15 star is just off the NNE edge. Adding an NPB filter the rim appear to be slightly brighter, particularly along the north side. 18" (6/11/07): picked up unfiltered at 174x as a round, moderately bright, crisp-edged disc of ~30" diameter. Excellent contrast gain with UHC or OIII filter. 18" (8/25/06): excellent view at 323x without a filter. The planetary appeared slightly elongated E-W, ~30"x25" with a slightly brighter rim giving a weakly annular appearance. A very faint 15th magnitude star is just off the NNE edge and a 16th magnitude star occasionally pops out at the west edge. 18" (7/19/04): beautiful view at 322x, appears moderately bright, fairly small, round, crisp-edged, ~30" diameter. The rim is slightly brighter giving a weak but definite annular appearance. A mag 15 star is just off the NNE edge and a mag 15.5-16 star is intermittently visible right at the west edge of the halo. Located 3.5' NE of mag 8.8 HD 176693. 17.5" (7/22/01): moderately bright, fairly small, perfectly circular. Easily picked by scanning region at 100x just 3.5' NE of mag 8.9 SAO 47978. Appears unevenly lit at 280x, ~30" diameter with slightly enhanced regions along the rim. A very faint star is off the NE edge. 17.5" (5/10/86): at 220x without filter appears fairly faint, round, fairly small. At 105x using an OIII filter the planetary is bright and compact with crisp round edges.