Rev. Thomas Espin discovered IC 1434 around 1893 with his 17.3-inch reflector at his private observatory in England while sweeping for red stars. He recorded "A remarkable cluster with six distinct radiating branches. Stars from 12 to 15." His rough position is fairly accurate. IC 1434 was confirmed as an open cluster in 2011A&A...530A..32B ("Star clusters or asterisms? 2MASS CMD and structural analyses of 15 challenging targets.") at a distance of roughly 8500 +/- 2000 light years.

200/250mm - 8" (8/12/83): ~50 stars at 200x, over haze, includes two strings on the east side, brighter stars at the south edge.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/29/92): about 100 stars in a 15' diameter. Three mag 9 stars form a triangle on the south side. The extensions almost fill the 20' field. Long sprays of stars intersect near the center at a mag 10.5 star. A long ray extends ENE for 11' and contains 30 stars. A ray to the WSW of 11' length has 16 stars including a close triple star. There are two more sprays to the NW of 6' length. The cluster has no distinct borders. The surrounding Lacerta Milky Way region is breathtaking with a 20 mm Nagler. Located 2.1° WNW of mag 4.4 Beta Lacertae.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb