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(IAAC) Obj: IC 166 - 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, 11:55pm 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: 100x
Filter(s): none
Object(s): IC 166
Category: Open cluster.
Class: II 1 r
Constellation: Cas
Data: mag 11.7  size 4.5'
Position: RA 01h:52m  DEC +61d:51m
Description:
At 100x (20mm Ultrascopic, 31' TFOV), IC 166 is a tiny, < 1', extremely faint
group of 3 or 4 stars just detectable with averted vision.  These stars are
in a rough line oriented NW/SE.  This object was very elusive.  After several
minutes at the eyepiece and multiple checks of the position, I still saw 
nothing.  Even though I couldn't see any moisture on the EP, I hit it with the
dew gun anyway.  That did it - either that or the seeing steadied up.  The Night
Sky Observer's Guide (Kepple and Sanner, Willmann-Bell, 1998) describes IC 166
as "... a faint mist centered on a Y-shaped asterism." in a 16"/18" scope.  May
be I saw that asterism - but I didn't see haze, alas.  MegaStar5 gives the star 
count at 120 and the Trumpler classification is "rich".  The Digital Sky Survey
image does indeed show a very rich cluster.  It must be really distant to be 
that rich yet unresolved with 18 inches.
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