by Ron Bhanukitsiri
What? Open cluster in Coronae Borealis? No can be, you say!
I plan my observation through the 4" TV-102 Light Cup on a constellation by constellation basis. When I first looked at Corona Borealis, there wasn't a single DSO reachable through a small telescope! What makes it so sad is that the star formation of this constellation is so pretty and conspicuous; perhaps it's why it means the "Northern Crown". So beautiful but yet so barren! (Of course, with a very large light bucket, many dimmy galaxies are abound.)
So while panning around with my 40mm Pentax XL at 3 degree FOV, the Light Cup stumbled upon an undiscovered? open "cluster". Try it. Star hop from Delta Coronae Borealis to Epsilon Coronae Borealis. Draw a line between Upsilon Coronae Borealis and Delta Coronae Borealis and continue southeast of this line to the mag 6.6 star SAO 84223. Finally, center your eyepiece at the mag 6.5 star SAO 84247. You're now at the center of the "LC-1" (i.e., "Light Cup 1") open cluster. I counted about 25 uniformly white stars and many more dim stars. You'll need at 3 degree FOV to appreciate it.
While in the constellation, I also caught the variable T Coronae Borealis, also known as the "Blazing Star" that varies betwen mag 2 to 14! Well, it isn't blazing now ;-) and at 73x appeared only a wee bit brighter than the mag 10.6 star GSC 2037:1231.
So where can the Light Cup apply for a new catalog for LC-1 ;-)? Ok, so if these group of stars can't be considered an open cluster, well why not 'cause they sure look like they form a "cluster"?
PS I've seen worse open clusters in the NGC Catalog!