LH 15 = NGC 1787 = ESO 085-031

05 00 07 -65 45 48; Dor
V = 10.9; Size 23′

13.1″ (2/17/04 – Costa Rica): at 105x; this large star cloud is 15′-20′ in size and includes 40 to 50 mag 11-13 stars over an extensive haze of unresolved stars. HD 270920, a 10th-magnitude luminous yellow supergiant (G5-type), is near the N end. NGC 1783 is located 15′ S.

Notes:  John Herschel discovered NGC 1787 = h2731 on 25 Dec 1837. His single observation placed this cluster at 05 00 17.3 -65 50 33 (2000) and his description “pretty rich cluster of small stars which fills field” appears to describe the entire 20′-25′ stellar association, which includes S-L 178.

The RNGC and NGC 2000.0 position of 04 59.1 -65 44 (2000) is from Lucke and Hodge’s “A Catalogue of Stellar Associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud” (AJ, 75, 171-175) and corresponds with the northwest portion of the association. The Hodge-Wright Atlas identifies NGC 1787 = S-L 178 at 05 01 44 -65 49.4, on the east side of the association, and ESO and Morel’s Visual Atlas of the LMC follows this misidentification. Shapley & Lindsay did not equate S-L 178 with NGC 1787.