NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

(This is a very very beta version)

NGC540

Basic Information

Location and Magnitude

Right Ascension: 1:27:8.8
Declination: -20:2:12
Constellation: CET
Visual Magnitude: 14.5

Historic Information

Discoverer: Leavenworth
Year of discovery: 1885
Discovery aperture: 26.3

Observational

Summary description: vF, vS, R, sbMN
Sub-type: SB0

Corwin's Notes

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NGC 540 is one of the 170 or so nebulae found at Leander McCormick in the 
mid-1880s to have a sketch.  Unfortunately, the sketch shows only one star in
addition to the nebula.  However, that field is fairly well matched by ESO
542- G012 1 minute and 50 seconds east and about 5 arcmin south.  I've taken
that as a tentative identification for N540.

See NGC 412 for another LM nebula with a sketch that did not work out so well.

Steve's Notes

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NGC 540

17.5" (10/4/97): extremely faint and small, round.  Only glimpsed at moments at 280x using GSC finder chart but several times appeared virtually stellar.  On two occasions a 20" halo was visible (too faint to determine elongation but extended 2:1 N-S on DSS). A mag 14 star lies 1.3' due north.