NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 499 = IC 1686 is the brightest of a moderately compact group of galaxies in a cluster of which NGC 507 is the dominant member. It, with six others in the cluster, was found by WH (see NGC 495 for a bit more on WH's observation of NGC's 495, 496, and NGC 499, which he treated as a triplet with a single position). JH reobserved five of the six, but mislabeled a "nova" (NGC 483) as the first of his father's objects (d'Arrest makes the same mistake). Lord Rosse has observations on 8 different nights, and -- with the exception of NGC 483 in the first observation -- got the identifications correct. Schultz also got the correct objects, and Dreyer sorted the field out well for the NGC. Javelle swept over the field late in 1899, finding and measuring a dozen objects in the area that he took to be previously uncatalogued. However, his accurate position and exact description of one of those "novae" points directly at NGC 499 -- in spite of the fact that he has a footnote on the object saying that "NGC 499 was also measured." He has clearly misidentified the object in the crowded field. Since he unfortunately does not publish his measurements of the NGC objects, we cannot now be sure just which galaxy he mistook for NGC 499. Dreyer did not catch Javelle's error (Javelle's absolute declination is about 1.7 arcmin off since he used the BD position, also 1.7 arcmin off, for his comparison star), so the galaxy now carries the IC, as well as the NGC, number.

===== NGC 499 24" (10/4/13): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 4:3 WSW-ENE, 60"x45", well concentrated with a very bright core. Brightest member of a subgroup of the NGC 507 Group with NGC 498 1.8' N, NGC 501 2.8' SE, NGC 498 3.4' WNW, NGC 496 4.2' N. 13.1" (8/8/86): moderately bright, moderately large, very bright core with a much fainter halo! Third of three with NGC 495 3.3' WNW and NGC 496 4.2' N.