NGC 6819 - The Foxhead Cluster

Image by Dr. James Dire - see description below

Discovered by Caroline Herschel on 12 May, 1784, NGC 6819 is an odd-shaped open cluster shining at magnitude 7.3. It sits below the right arm of the Northern Cross about halfway between the tip star and the middle body star in the cross. It lies approximately 7,200 light years away and is approximately 5’ in diameter. It has around 150 member stars from magnitude 11 to 15. It is popularly referred to as the Fox Head cluster. The challenge is seeing the details and probably trying to draw it or describe it as accurately as possible. Different magnifications and apertures may tend to give it different appearances.

Buddy L. Barbee:  LVAS Friend from North Carolina
This observation was made Friday, June 26, 2011 while camping at Hagan Stone Park in Guilford County,  NC. I was using my 4-inch refractor with a 7mm eyepiece for a magnification of 125X.

I located NGC 6819 with a 24mm eyepiece at a magnification of 37X and the cluster looked like a small gray spot. I began to up the magnification to see how many more stars I could see. I settled on the 7mm for a magnification of 125X. At 125X, this cluster is a pretty faint, small unresolved heart-shaped haze. There are only about 9 dim stars visible in two diverging lines. On a clear night with a naked eye limiting magnitude of 5.2, using a 4-inch refractor in the light polluted sky of Guilford County, NC, I was very pleased with this observation. Given a darker sky and a larger telescope, I could have seen more stars. However, the heart-shaped unresolved haze was a really nice feature to see.

I observed this cluster once again on Monday, August 22, 2011 while at my club's dark sky site near Pilot Mountain, NC. On this occasion, I was using my 10-inch Dob with a 10mm eyepiece for a magnification of 120X and a true field of view of 00° 30 minutes.

At 120X with the 10-inch Dob, the Fox Head Cluster is a faint gray spot about 5 to 6 arc minutes in diameter. There are approximately 22 stars visible in this hazy gray spot. The majority of these stars are in two diverging strings of stars that give the cluster it's name. This was on a clear night with a naked eye limiting magnitude of 5.4 to 5.6 at the end of the observation.

Dr. James Dire:  LVAS Member from Hawaii

NGC 6819 is a magnitude 7.3 galactic star cluster in the constellation Cygnus. The cluster lies just under 8° west of the star Sadr, or about 1/3 of the way between Sadr and Vega. I viewed and imaged the cluster on July 27, 2011. Viewing was through a 70mm f/6 achromatic refractor using a 26 mm eyepiece. The cluster was an unresolved blur that was easily distinguishable in the eyepiece as a deep space object.

I imaged the cluster with my 102mm f/7.9 apochromatic refractor using an SBIG ST-2000XCM CCD camera from the KEASA Observatory on the west side of Kauai. The image is a 30-minute exposure and shows a dense concentration containing scores of stars. The brighter ones trace out a 'V'or 'U' shape. The cluster is 5 arc minutes in diameter. The brightest star in the image is a magnitude 6.2 star located 9 arc minutes northeast (upper left in image) from the cluster's center. About 4 arc minutes to the lower left of the cluster's center is a magnitude 8 star that is nowhere near as bright in other images of the cluster I have seen. The star is known to be variable and usually shines between magnitude 10 and 10.4. I apparently caught it in an outburst.

Brandon Doyle:  LVAS Friend from New York

I created the sketch of NGC 6819, the Fox Head Cluster, first by combining two sketches I made in the field into one. I first used a higher-magnification eyepiece to “pick out” the faintest members of the cluster, and then used a low-magnification eyepiece to get the surrounding star field. I later combined the two, to create somewhat of a “composite” sketch, in which it allowed me to depict the faintest members of the resolved cluster and the surrounding field stars in one sketch, more accurately and in-depth than if I were to just do it with low magnification. The evening was somewhat foggy, and the waning-gibbous moon was up in the eastern sky, having a severe impact on what I was able to see due to its light pollution. Along with all of that, I was battling fogging of the secondary mirror in my telescope.

I have also done other sketches this way, including the one at the link below of M13 that included three sketches, one of M13 itself, one of NGC 6207, and one very low-power view that picked up a great deal of the surrounding star field. By the way, I did all of it during a full moon, which actually helped me, in a way. (see M13/NGC 6207 and Brandon's Website)

Sue French:  LVAS Friend and author from New York

November 8, 1993, 7:20 am EST - 10-inch f/6 Newtonian, 42X, 135X.  Seeing:  Fair.  Transparency:  Good - A pretty little cluster about 12' across. Slightly irregular. About 50 fairly faint to very faint stars.

July 31, 1994, 11:05 pm EDT -  14 X 70 binoculars.  Seeing:  Poor.  Transparency:  Fair - Small, round, fuzzy patch. Seems to be at the edge of resolution.  Occasionally thought she could see some little pinpoints in it.  Fairly faint.

May 10, 2003, 3:10 am EDT - 105/610mm apochromat, 127X.  Seeing:  Good.  Transparency:  Fair - Small group about 5' of about 25 very faint to extremely faint stars. About 15 of them, including the brightest ones, form a V over haze that indicates unresolved stars.

Roger Ivester:  LVAS Member from North Carolina

NGC 6819 "Foxhead" open cluster in Cygnus. A small 102mm refractor at low power presents NGC 6819 as a small irregular cluster with two rows of brighter stars. One row or chain is oriented north, and the other NE. The cluster is located in a star rich area, but is easily seen and recognized. The 10-inch at 208X shows about twenty five stars forming two star chains, with a prominent double at the SE edge. The cluster has many fainter stars that could not be seen, which gives a slight nebulous appearance.  (See more of Roger's sketches.)

Rob Lambert:  LVAS President from Las Vegas

I was able to observe NGC 6819 between 01:00 and 02:00 on 6 August, 2011 from the 8,000-foot level of Mount Charleston near Las Vegas. Although I was only about 35 miles (straight line distance) from my home in North Las Vegas, the conditions weren't bad at all. My observing location was a large cleared area located between Kyle Canyon and Lee Canyon Roads on Deer Creek Hwy. Cyclists will appreciate that Deer Creek Hwy is reminiscent of the Col du Tourmalet in the Tour de France. From Kyle Canyon Road, it rises from 6,000 feet to 8,500 feet in 6 miles. The Col du Tourmalet only rises 2,362 feet in 11.5 miles. Anyway, for being so close to Las Vegas, the Milky Way was visible and the sky was crystal clear from this site. The seeing; however, was only average with a rating of maybe 3.

10-second integration                                                            20-second integration

I imaged the Fox Head Cluster with both my ST120 and my 10-inch LX200. The first image through the ST120 was a 10-second integration with a magnification of approximately 35X. At this magnification and exposure, there appear to be between 40-50 stars that make up the cluster proper. The greatest concentration of stars seems to form a "V" that points to the south or to the left in my image. There is a void in the interior of the "V" where only a few stars keep it from being totally void. Above or to what I thinks is the east, are three significantly brighter stars that are probably not considered to be part of the cluster. In my image, these stars appear to be somewhat bloated because of the chromatic aberration associated with my short-tube achromatic refractor.

The second ST120 image was simply a longer 20-second integration that picked up many more stars than the 10-second image, or more than what one might see through an eyepiece. If it wasn't for the obvious concentration of stars in the cluster, at this exposure, it almost blended in with the field stars of the Milky Way. In both of these images, I had a hard time imagining that I could see a fox head.

In my LX200 image (15-second integration and 150X), the fox head was more obvious to me. The cluster is located in the middle of the image and this particular orientation has the fox upright with his nose (the point of the "V") pointing to the left or what I think is south. Depending on how much Sprite or 7-Up I’ve had to drink (the bubbles go to my head), the cluster either reminds me of a sock puppet dog or Scooby-Doo. There are two bright stars on the end of the fox's snout.  Under these stars and just to the right is a straight row of closely-spaced, mixed-magnitude stars that appear to form his bared upper teeth, and below that, a curve of dimmer stars that form his lower jaw. Directly above the corner of the fox's mouth are two slightly brighter stars that are his eyes and right above them is a small cluster of 5 stars that look like the tip of floppy ears. Below the teeth is an uneven row of four much brighter but more distantly-spaced stars that form a collar around the fox's neck. To the right of this row of stars is a pentagon-shaped pattern of stars that reminds me of a miniature asterism of Auriga, even with brighter Cappella at the top of the pentagon. Ok, so I warned you about the Sprite!

Fred Rayworth:  LVAS AL Coordinator from Las Vegas

I’ve had a real hard time getting out this year for the challenges, but oddly enough, I managed to get it at a public outreach event in an orange zone at the Red Rock Visitors Center in the foothills on the west side of Las Vegas on August 6, 2011. The skies cooperated enough to let go of a few deep sky objects and this being in the Dobson Hole made it easy to see.

Because of the severe light pollution, there was not much of a Milky Way to go by but the key stars of Cygnus gave me enough of a ballpark to aim my green laser pointer, which I could barely see, into the correct spot. With a 14mm eyepiece and an 82° field of view, I was able to sweep around a little bit and found it in no time. It was very evident when I did. There was no mistaking the distinctive V shape.

My exact notes were:  Nice sprinkling of faint stars in a rough V shape. Sort of resembles a fox head with a little imagination, at least the perked up ears.  Fairly dense around the forehead area. Between and lying down between two brighter stars.”

Upon studying my drawing in the log book and then transferring it to the official one shown here, I noted that there seemed to be a heavier concentration of faint stars along the edge closest to the two bright stars that the cluster is sitting between. That concentration appeared more subtle than my heavy-handed drawing makes it look like, but it was something I noticed.

Gus Johnson:  LVAS Friend from Maryland.  NOTE:  On April 19, 1979, Gus Johnson, visually discovered Supernova 1979C in spiral galaxy M-100. NASA announced on November 15, 2010, there was evidence of a black hole as a result of tmy supernova explosion.

NGC 6819, near Delta Cygnus rather easily found and pretty obvious in the 8-inch at 60X. The west side has a gentle curve of five stars followed by a pair, then to the north (I think, oh, these changing field orientations! Arrrgh!) is a clump of 3 or 4 stars, barely resolved at 133X.

I saw no fox head, or tail, but maybe some wishes of a fox seeking stardom.

Tony Labude:  LVAS Friend from Oklahoma

Image of NGC 6819 captured on July 30, 2011. 15 minutes total exposure time with FLI 8300c camera thru an 80mm f/7 refractor.  Image credited to Dennis Wigley, Kevin Davis and Tony Labude.

Arrived at the observing site at Sunset on the 30th of July with 100+ temp, gentle breeze and dissipating clouds. Spent the early evening with quick peeks at Saturn, M6, M8, M20, M17, and identifying a few satellites. Later moved the old Odyssey 8 f/7 to the infamous "dob-hole" position and began the challenge just to find NGC 62819. Finally with the help of fellow observer/imager Kevin Davis, located the little object. At 50X observed a blob with two protruding streaks. At 120X, the streaks were thin lines of stars in a V shape with a circle of stars at the closed end. I didn’t know how it got named Foxhead. It made me think of a small bee. Suppose it could be headed to its hive just over the horizon?