NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 603 is a triple star found by Lord Rosse. Its position was unfortunately not well-determined, so there has been some puzzle over its identity. Dreyer, in the Notes to IC1, claimed that he could only see a faint star in the place of NGC 603. (I've been unable to identify this star with any certainty. One candidate is at 01 31 30.4, +29 55 58, B1950.0, while Bigourdan has two observations of another at 01 31 44.7, +29 56 42.) However, Lord Rosse's description makes the identification certain, even without a good position: "A small nebula or cluster with 3 stars in it. It is about 8 arcmin south-southpreceding a double star whose components are of the 11th magnitude." This is very close to the actual distance of the double from the triple star -- but there is no nebulosity or cluster associated with the triple. I suspect that the discovery was made on a night of relatively poor seeing, leading to the impression of accompanying nebulosity. The B1950.0 positions of the three stars, all from GSC, are *1 01 31 54.54 +29 58 37.1 = GSC 02293-00972 *2 01 31 54.85 +29 58 45.4 = GSC 02293-00966 *3 01 31 55.37 +29 58 31.6 = GSC 02293-00998. I've adopted the mean value for the main table.

===== NGC 603 17.5" (9/28/02): identified at 162x as a slightly fuzzy glow and cleanly resolved into a faint triple star at 325x (7.5mm Tak and Paracorr). Situated ~30' SE of the core of M33. 17.5" (8/11/96): this is a faint, close triple star within M33 described as a "A south neb. or Cl. with 3 st in it" by Lord Rosse. It appeared as a faint nebulous spot at low power and was barely resolved at 220x. The trio of mag 14/15 stars was cleanly resolved at 410x. The maximum separation is 15", the close pair at 9" separation and the other side 12" with the trio forming a 3-4-5 right triangle! Located 28' SE of the center of M33.