NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 1204. Steve Gottlieb has found that WH saw this on the night of 27 November 1785 in Sweep 478. Herschel, however, simply said "A deception." His position, though, reduced with respect to 83 (epsilon) Ceti, is just 1.2 arcminutes south of the galaxy. A glance at the galaxy suggests why WH thought he was "deceived": There are three foreground stars very close to it. The brightest star is actually superposed on the galaxy close southeast of the nucleus. WH would have seen primarily the light of the star, with just enough of the galaxy to be "deceived" into thinking he might have seen some nebulosity involved. It was left to Frank Leavenworth at Leander McCormick to re-discover the galaxy on 26 December 1885, just a century and a month after WH's observation.

===== NGC 1204 17.5" (11/17/01): interesting object as it appears as a diffuse glow, elongated ENE-WSW with three stars near including a mag 11 star attached at the south edge.