NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7150 is an asterism of four stars (the northern star has a faint companion just south) found by Bond in February 1848 with the 15-inch Harvard refractor soon after it was installed. Though Bond describes it only as "A nebula," there is no nebulosity associated with the stars. Bond's position is good, so there is no doubt about the identification. This object, by the way, is almost an exact miniature of what is probably NGC 6634 (which see). It was my recollection of observing NGC 7150 with my 6-inch F7 reflector in the early 1960's that convinced me that La Caille could indeed have mistaken the four bright stars at his position for a nebula resembling "... a small nucleus of a comet." NGC 7150 appeared to me as a small, faint nebula, clearly defined, yet unresolved (it must have appeared similarly to Bond). La Caille's asterism, if they are indeed the stars he saw, would have appeared quite similar to him with his 0.5-inch telescope.

===== NGC 7150 18" (9/26/11): this asterism was picked up at 175x as a small knot of 4 faint stars, ~45" diameter. The stars are arranged in a slightly curving north-south string, bowed out to the east with mags of 13.5-14.3. At 285x, a 5th star ~50" E of the string was noticed. Collinear with two mag 10.5/11 stars situated 3' ENE. Located 14' ENE of mag 7.0 HD 207647.