IC 1434

Right Ascension	22 : 10.5 (h:m)
Declination	+52 : 50 (deg:m)
Distance	(kly)
Visual Brightness	9.0 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	8 (arc min)

Perhaps in Johann Elert Bode's catalog of 1777.
Independently found by Espin.

This open cluster is contained in Johann Elert Bode's list of 75 nebulous objects as Bode 1. While Bode doesn't give details on its discovery or any observations, it seems that this may be his own discovery, in particular as he lists it with source "Bode" in his 1782 Atlas, "Vorstellung der Gestirne" (Introduction of the Luminaries).

The few treatments of Bode's list usually presume that Bode 1 is non-existent. The nearest NGC clusters are NGC 7226 (RA 22:10.5, Dec +55:25, mag 9.6, 2' diameter) and NGC 7243 (RA 22:15.3, Dec +49:53, 21' diameter, 6.4 mag), but both are several degrees off from Bode's position, RA 22:09.1, Dec +52:55 (2000.0). The present author [hf] has found the proximity to the cluster IC 1434 (RA 22:10.5, Dec +52:50) some time ago; at least, there are contemporary positive observations of this object with moderate telescopes, see e.g. the Observing Reports for IC 1434 from the IAAC Netastrocatalog.

J.L.E. Dreyer included this cluster in the (first) IC catalog of 1895 on the ground of its discovery or rediscovery by Espin.

Open Cluster IC 1434 was tentatively classified as of Trumpler type II 1 p, Archinal, Hynes (2003) have it as III 2 m. It contains about 40 stars scattered over a diameter of 8 arc minutes. The brightest of these stars is of about 12th magnitude, the whole cluster of mag 9. It was also cataloged as Collinder 445 and as Melotte 239.

NGC Online data for IC 1434

References

• Brent A. Archinal and Steven J. Hynes, 2003. Star Clusters. Willman-Bell, Inc., Richmond, Virginia.

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: September 21, 2007