NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 874. Though Muller's position is off, his description is exact, including the position angle of the galaxy and the position angle and distance of the neighboring star. The RC3 is correct in this case. ----- In July 2016, John Ponting sent an email noting that my earlier comment is not correct in its reference to the neighboring star (star "A" in what follows). Here is what appeared in the second Leander McCormick list with respect to this galaxy: No. RA (1890) Dec m D x d "Form" n Obs Notes 329 02 11.1 -23 42 15.5 0.3x0.1 E 170[deg] 1 M **?; *10, P320[deg] [delta] 2.8[arcmin] The star's position angle is actually close to 27 degrees rather than the 320 degrees that Frank Muller recorded, though the distance is correct. John notes another star (star "B") of very similar magnitude at PA = 320 degrees and distance = 5.1 arcminutes. Given this, he has suggested four ways in which Muller may have confused his observation: "(1) Muller was referring to 'A', got the distance right, but measured the angle completely wrong (67[deg] error; most of his angles are within 10[deg]) (2) He was referring to 'B', got the angle spot on, but measured the distance completely wrong (2.3' error; most of his distances are within 0.5') (3) He measured both stars and compressed these readings into one, managing to take bits from each (seems very unlikely to me) (4) He was referring to 'A', whose angle he measured as 32[deg] (which is within his normal angle accuracy), but an extra '0' got added in error when the list was published. (This seems to me to be the most likely.)" I can add a fifth possibility to this list: Muller recorded his star in the wrong quadrant, intending "40[deg]" instead of 320. Whatever happened, the identity of the galaxy is pretty sure. Rather surprisingly, Muller's RA is close to the real value while his declination is 7 arcminutes too far north. But his description of the galaxy and its nearby star -- aside from whatever error he made -- are close to what we see on the sky today.

===== NGC 874 17.5" (10/25/97): threshold object barely glimpsed on a couple of occasions. Could not verify the observation with certainty although the exact spot was examined using a GSC chart. Located 3' SSW of a mag 11 star. This galaxy is incorrectly listed as nonexistent in RNGC and is not plotted on U2000.