NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6914 is the northern-most of three similar nebulae, probably all reflection nebulae -- they show up best on the POSS1 blue plate. Interestingly, the area on the red plate is dominated by a large HII region, centered 20-30 arcmin to the northeast of N6914. Are the reflection nebulae part of the same system of gas and dust, or are they merely superposed along the line of sight? I suspect the former, but of course can't say for sure.

===== NGC 6914 18" (8/12/07): at 73x, this rich Milky Way region contains three sections of reflection nebulosity. The brightest piece (GN 20.22.9) was discovered by Stephan and is located 11' SW of mag 6.9 HD 194708. It involves two mag 11 stars and a mag 12.5 star on the west side. About 6' S is another hazy patch (vdB 132 = GN 20.23.0) surrounding a wide mag 9/11 pair at 43". Faint haze connects these two pieces and together they extend ~10'x3' in a N-S orientation. This reflection nebula appears to be bounded on the west side by a non-illuminated dust cloud. A third weak reflection nebula (VdB 131) is located 12' SSW of the brighter (northern) section of NGC 6914. It involves a group of 10-15 stars (Dolidze 8) including two mag 9.5 stars and a nice curving arc of stars is just off the southeast side. Overall, the Milky Way is very patchy or dusty in this region so these reflection nebulae do not stand out prominently, though the contrast was improved using a Deep Sky filter. To the SE of the NGC 6914 complex is a very faint, hazy HII region (LBN 279), situated just east of mag 7.5 HD 194669. It appears roughly 10'x6' in size and includes a number of mag 10-11 stars. There was only a weak response to a UHC filter, though there was no response to a Deep Sky filter and this is not part of the reflection complex. 17.5" (8/7/91): at 100x appears as a fairly bright field of reflection nebulosity locally brightest surrounding two pairs of fairly bright stars. Two mag 11 stars are at the north end with a separation of 51" and a mag 9 (SAO 49589)/mag 11 pair with a separation of 42" is at the south end. These two sections are separated by ~6' and are connected by a fainter elongated piece of nebulosity. Very faint nebulosity also extends NE towards a mag 7 star (SAO 49603) located 11' NE. Stephan's position is centered on the northern pair of stars. A third piece surrounding a mag 9 further SW was not noted. 8" (7/24/82): fairly large nebulous field locally brighter surrounding a wide faint double star and to the south surrounding a double star mag 9. The brightest section is elongated N-S.