NGC 7772, Asterism
This asterism in the constellation Pegasus was discovered in 1825 by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel.
At first, NGC 7772 was thought to be a star cluster, or more precisely, the remaining part of a dissolving cluster. The distance was given as 5,000
light-years.
But in a recent study with the help of the astrometry satellite Gaia it was shown that it is not a star cluster but a random arrangement of stars in the
firmament. This is supported by the different proper motions, but also by different radial velocities. So the stars do not move as a unit, but each in
its own direction. They do not seem to be gravitationally bound.
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In my 20" telescope the asterism is very inconspicuous. The star brightnesses are around 13...14mag. There are only 7 stars visible at 270x in a
memorable pattern next to two brighter stars.
