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(IAAC) Obj: NGC 663 - Inst: 8" SCT, Celestron, manual fork



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Observation Poster: Don Clouse <dlcdeepsky@insightbb.com>

Observer: Don Clouse
Your skills: Intermediate (some years)
Date/time of observation: 11/1/2002, 10:50 EST
Location of site: southern Indiana, 35 miles west of Louisville, KY  USA (Lat +38d 7m, Elev 780 ft)
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 7 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 8" SCT, Celestron, manual fork
Magnification: 51x, 135x
Filter(s): none
Object(s): NGC 663
Category: Open cluster.
Class: II 3 r
Constellation: Cas
Data: mag 7.1  size 16.0'
Position: RA 01h:46m  DEC +61d:13m
Description:
At 51x (40mm Optiluxe, 73' TFOV), NGC 663 is a huge, sprawling, rich cluster -
very beautiful and quite striking.  Calling it a showpiece object would not be
too far off-base.  It is about 15' in size and circular.  The central 12' is
well concentrated with an obvious void running N/S just to the west of center.
The larger concentration of stars is east of the void.  The outer edge of the
cluster merges imperceptibly into the rich, surrounding star field.  30 stars
are visible with direct vision and twice that with averted vision.  Both 
NGC 659 and Berkeley 6 are visible in the same field.  At 135x (15mm Panoptic,
30' TFOV), the direct vision star count exceeds 60.  Magnitudes span a wide
range from quite bright to the edge of resolution.  NGC 663 is on the Herschel
400 list.
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