Andrew Cooper
Jan 13, 2018    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 80x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

A large, bright cluster just north of the great nebula of Orion, a dozen or so bright magnitude 5-7 stars scattered over a 10' area, appears to be a continuation of NGC1977 without the bright nebula amoung the stars

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)

Brilliant field, containing Σ750 and Σ743, supra. A grand neighborhood; sweep well over the whole space, from 42 to Iota, which star large apertures involve in a haze, connected by a long faint loop with the Great Nebula.

― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

Captain William Henry Smyth
Oct 16, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

[From entry CCXVII for θ1 Ori...] A delicate double star in the wide-spread cluster on Orion's sword. A 6, lucid white; B 9, pale blue. The principal members of this group of stars, are of the 6th and 7th magnitudes, with some smaller; and from their brightness and disposition form a capital test for the light of a telescope. It was examined by H., and entered on his Catalogue of 1830; whence it may lay claim to being an aggregated and connected assemblage, and, comparatively speaking, not very remote from us.

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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