Observations of The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)

NGC 299

Andrew Murrell

An open cluster on the edge of the main body of the SMC.

Discovered by Herschel he described it as being "Pretty bright, round nebula, very small, and resolvable". The object is an open cluster, but, NGC 2000.0 and Uranometria both show it as being a bright nebula. It would appear as though the revised NGC compiled and updated in 1973 initiated this mistake, which has carried on through.

It is interesting to note that Matti Morels charts and the Herald Bobroff Astro atlas were able to correct this fault in the RNGC.

The cluster is 1 arc minute in diameter and is well defined against the background sky. No central condensation is visible but a number of the brightest stars in the outer regions of the cluster become visible through the 20" scope. The cluster appears triangular in shape with the brightest stars being about the southwestern corner. The triangular shape was evident at low power. The cluster is listed as being 11th magnitude and should be visible in a 6" scope from a good dark sky. The sky background around the cluster is lightly peppered with 15th and 16th magnitude stars. When a UHC filter is employed to view the cluster it dims severely, showing that no nebulosity is associated with the cluster.

Timo Karhula

Observed with 20x80 binoculars and described as very faint and stellar.