NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 618 may be NGC 614 (which is also NGC 627, which see) -- or it may be NGC 608. JH's position points at nothing, and there is no star 2 min 51 sec east of that position as his description claims. NGC 614 fits his description ("pB, pL, bM") but the fairly bright star follows by only 55 sec. Is there perhaps a combination of transcription errors and/or typos in JH's offset to the star? I'm thinking perhaps that the superscript "m" on the 2 in his description stands for "magnitude" rather than "minute." The star, of course, is not 2nd magnitude -- this is where the error would have to occur. Whatever the case, there is certainly an error in JH's position for the galaxy. Is his object NGC 608? This is not quite as likely; N608 is the fainter of the two galaxies in the area. Also, N618 was found during a different sweep (102) than NGC 608 and NGC 614 (both sweep 106), and different again from N627 (sweep 100), the other "missing" object in the area. I'm tempted to simply equate N618 with N608, and N627 with N614. But the relative magnitudes, and the fact that N618 and N627 were found during different sweeps argues in favor of JH having seen only the brightest object during each sweep. So, I note the possibility of the identity of N618 with N614 or with N608, but would not bet my Pentium on it! ----- Wolfgang has recently (July 2014) looked at the field with JH's observing log in hand. He suggests instead that NGC 618 is an asterism centered on a bright star at 01 41 36.8, +33 17 42 (J2000), but I see only a bright (V = 10.1) star at this position, unlikely to have been mistaken as nebulous. While I've added this object to the table, I've also added question marks. ----- Working on a general cleanup of the position file in July 2016, I once again ran across this object. This time I checked the sweep and found a peculiar record for this object, number 25 in sweep 102 on 16 November 1827. JH has it at "-342 beats" and "18' S[outh] of St[ar]." Given that the star is TYC 2298-44-1 = GSC 02298-00044 = 2MASS J01391229+3341346, this leads to the position that JH published in his 1833 list and was carried on into the NGC half a century later. The "-342 beats" translates into -2minutes 51seconds (2 chronometer beats a second). It occured to me that perhaps the signs might be wrong. Checking at the suggested offsets, however, showed no nebulae. Did JH refer his nebula to a different star, perhaps the double star (WDS J01526+3127AB) that followed the nebula in the sweep? Again, checking the four possible offsets, I found no nebulae. What about the objects that I've suggested as possible identifications? Do either of these have a star at the correct offset? The answer is "No." This makes neither NGC 608 nor NGC 614 a reasonable choice. What about Wolfgang's asterism? Again, there is no star at JH's offsets. Or NGC 618 could just be a comet. But a search using JPL's "Small Body Identification" tool, limited roughly to JH's sweep limits in declination and between RAs of 1hr and 2hrs on his observing date turned up no comets. So, given that there is nothing on the sky in the area that matches JH's description and offsets, I have to throw up my hands once again and say, "Another lost NGC object!" However, JH adds an interesting footnote at the end of the sweep that may go some ways toward explaining the situation: "This sweep made with Sir Rufane Donkin who arrived unexpectedly just as I had begun & staid [sic] the night." JH goes on to comment on their observations of the Orion Nebula and Rigel ("... which is really superb"), and on the bad weather earlier in the day ("It had rained hard all day"). Is it possible, I wonder, that the presence of a distinguished lieutenant general, knighted for service to his king and country all over the world, and twenty years older than JH, could have perhaps rattled the younger man a bit? If so, then an extended search for JH's object, with its offset star, along the belt of sweep might be of some value.