NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3002 is a star. It and NGC 3004 were found by LdR with his 72-inch, and are both included in his chart of the NGC 2998 field. Of the three faint stars near the place shown for NGC 3002, the brightest (included in the main table) and closest to Dreyer's position as sketched, is most likely the one he saw. The second brightest star is at 09 45 52.0, +11 17 34 (B1950.0); or at 09 48 33.0, +11 03 35 for J2000.0. MCG +07-20-052 is a low surface brightness interacting system less than 2 arcmin southeast of the star. MCG unfortunately took this to be NGC 3002, so the object has been incorrectly saddled with the NGC number ever since.

===== NGC 3002 48" (5/14/12): near the position of NGC 3002 is a faint trio of stars, mag 16.5/16.5/16.9 as well as MCG +07-20-052, an extremely faint interacting pair of galaxies. One of the two brighter stars is likely the object sketched by Bindon Stoney at Birr Castle in 1851. At 488x, the two brighter stars were very comparable in magnitude. The star identified by Corwin (southwest vertex of the triangle) was possibly marginally brighter, though the other mag 16.5 star at the east vertex of the triangle (09 49 01.4 +44 03 37) is a better match with Stoney's sketch. MCG +07-20-052, the galaxy misidentified in most catalogues as NGC 3002, is just visible as a very low surface brightness patch ~1.5' SE of the trio of stars.