William Herschel discovered NGC 7245 = H VI-29 = h2157 on 14 Oct 1787 (sweep 765) and noted "a compressed cluster of extremely small stars." JH made the single observation "a Milky Way cluster. Stars 14...15m. It is more crowded than the Milky Way, so as to run up to a condensed but faint mass of light." His position is accurate.

200/250mm - 8" 15 faint stars elongated N-S with a double star at the north edge. Includes three brighter stars mag 8-10 around the edges but the rest of the stars are mag 13 or fainter.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/9/83): about 20 fainter stars mostly in a string. Other rich enhancements are near in this Milky Way field.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/5/94): about two dozen stars in a 2.5' diameter bordered by a mag 11 star on the west edge, a mag 10 star on the SSE edge and a mag 9 star (SAO 34240) off the NE side. A small 1' diameter core is richer. A large dust lane appears to cut through the 20' field SW-NE and passes the east side of cluster. At low power other dark patches are evident. Open cluster IC 1442 is in the low power field 20' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb