IC 5134


Combination of 15, 1 minute images unfiltered.
SBIG STL-1001E CCD. 20" f/6.8 Dall-Kirkham cassegrain telescope at prime focus.

IC 5134 is a faint reflection nebula, located in the constellation Cepheus, surrounding a small but bright open cluster. However, there is some confusion as to which cluster this is. Megastar indicates that the cluster is NGC 7133, while slightly to the west is the open cluster and associated nebula NGC 7129. However looking at the Real Sky images for that object, there is nothing obvious at that location. The Sky indicates that the cluster is NGC 7129 and places NGC 7133 a little to the east, in a location where there is nothing obvious on the Real Sky images! There is however a small, faint nebula a little to the south west of the indicated location. This is visible in the above image as the little patch surrounding a star a little to the left of the main nebula. About the only thing the two programs agree on, is the designation of the main nebula! I suspect that The Sky is more accurate although its description of NGC 7133 as "pretty large" does not really fit with what is visible. The small patch of nebulosity to the north of the main nebula is designated as IC 5132 and IC 5133.


Combination of 15, 1 minute images unfiltered.
SBIG STL-1001E CCD. 20" f/6.8 Dall-Kirkham cassegrain telescope at prime focus.

The large cluster visible to the lower left of IC 5134 is NGC 7142, one of the many open clusters in this region listed in the Herschel 400 list.