NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 481. The stars that Leavenworth describes in his Note, "*12.5, np 1'; *12, nf 2'" are just where he says they are, and his position is not too far off. As with NGC 480, there is no sketch, but the description of the star field is clear and correct, so there is no problem with this identification. On 20 November 1886, Lewis Swift also picked up this object. He noted a "F * nr np"; this must be the first of the two stars that Leavenworth mentions. Even though Leavenworth's place is not too bad in this case, Swift's is a bit closer to the galaxy. This was fortunate as Dreyer adopted Swift's position for the NGC. Finally, in the first of his Monthly Notices articles (MN 58, 356, 1898), Herbert Howe provides a micrometrically measured position that Dreyer included in the IC2 Notes. Howe's place is within a few arcseconds of the modern position for the galaxy.

===== NGC 481 17.5" (12/23/92): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated, small bright core, fairly bright stellar nucleus. A mag 13 star is 1' NW.