discovery

[matcat]

I believe I have discovered a star cluster. I isn't in any star charts, nor any information is in it. Who do I contact for help and maybe verify if I did discover it?

 

[tfwthom]

The first thing I would do is grab the book Star Clusters and check if it was listed. http://www.willbell.com/handbook/starclusters/index.htm<br /><br />"Over the last few hundred years many of these objects have been repeatedly rediscovered and subsequently renamed, misidentified as to their true nature, or given incorrect celestial coordinates. Altogether there are 5,045 individual objects catalogued in this work that have a total of 13,949 "alias" names‹on average, nearly 3 names for each object. This work catalogs 2,017 clusters in the Milky Way or previously misidentified as Milky Way clusters, including 151 globular clusters or possible globular clusters, and 1547 open clusters or possible open clusters."<br /><br />And if I didn't find it in his book I wold just call Brent Archinal since he's a observing buddy and ask him.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>