Andrew Cooper
Jul 4, 2021    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Listed as an asterism (Corwin & NED) or non-existent (SIMBAD & RNGC) a few arcminutes east of HD146029.

In the 8" Astrola there is a distinct 2' clump of very faint stars that could be mistaken for a nebula in a smaller 'scope such as the 12cm refractor of Thome, particularly at low power or under marginal conditions.

Harold Corwin

IC 1203 may be an asterism of 6 to 8 stars. Though his position -- at least as transcribed into the first IC by Dreyer, and as plotted on the 1929 edition of the CD charts -- is good, I'm not sure that the scattered group of 6-8 stars there is compact enough that Thome would have mistaken it for a nebula in his small telescope (12.5 cm aperture).

IC 1207 (which see) has a much better candidate asterism; I think this one is too large (3.5 x 2.0 arcmin) and its stars too bright to be taken for a nebula.

Nevertheless, I am retaining the identification, though with a colon, since there is nothing else in the area. Perhaps an experienced observer can poke at this with a similarly sized refractor to see what it looks like.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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

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