NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 396. RNGC places this object more than a degree away from Marth's position. Yet just 5 seconds of time east of the original position is a faint galaxy that Marth could well have seen with the 48-inch reflector. Unfortunately, Marth rarely mentions stars near his nebulae; had he done so in this case, the identity would have been clinched as there is a star just 10 or 12 arcsec northeast of the nucleus of the galaxy. Other than that, however, I see no reason not to identify this galaxy as N396. The GSC position is likely a blend of the galaxy and the star, and thus a few arcsec northeast of the true place. However, my own measurement puts the position a few arcsec north of the GSC position, so perhaps the GSC is OK. There is also a faint double star at 01 05 20 +04 15.7. I doubt that this is the object that Marth saw, but it could be. Still, I'll stick with the faint galaxy.

===== NGC 396 17.5" (10/4/97): very faint, very small, slightly elongated. Required averted vision to identify with GSC finder chart but with concentration can just hold steadily. Located 2.1' NNW of a mag 13 star. By a remarkable coincidence, Saturn was in the same low power field just 15' due S! Best view of NGC 396 at 280x with Saturn sufficiently out of field to avoid any glare. Misidentified in RNGC (MCG +00-04-020).