William Herschel discovered NGC 7790 = H VII-56 = h2285 on 16 Dec 1788 (sweep 892) and recorded "a pretty compressed cl of small stars of several sizes; considerably rich; E nearly in the parallel. 5 or 6' long." JH reported "a double star in the p part of a pretty rich cluster; diam 4'; stars 12...13m; the f part most compressed."

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/29/84): largest of three open clusters on a line. Roughly two dozen stars mag 10-15 are resolved in a 5'x2' region elongated E-W. A mag 10 star is about 4' SE of the center and a couple of similar stars are on the west side of the cluster. The slightly fainter cluster NGC 7788 is located 15' NW. The three clusters span about 1° including Harvard 21.

400/500mm - 18" (11/26/03): ~30 stars resolved in a 4.5'x2.5' region, fairly rich. Three mag 11 stars are along the west side of the cluster and a slightly brighter mag 10 star is ~4' SE of the main group. This cluster is slightly larger than NGC 7788 ~16' NW. Fainter Be 58 lies 20' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb