NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3110 = NGC 3122 = NGC 3518 (= MCG -01-26-014) and MCG -01-26-013 are an interacting pair separated by 1.9 arcminutes; N3110 is the brighter of the pair. N3122 is actually an observation of N3110, but WH confused his comparison stars. Stephan's position is very close to the actual position of the galaxy, but is about an arcmin off in declination. This is probably due to the incorrect declination that he quotes for his comparison star (which is not the same one that Herschel used). Both Stephan (in his 1885 AN paper) and Dreyer (in MNRAS 73, 37, 1912) suggest that the two NGC numbers refer to the same galaxy. Dreyer makes further comments in his notes to WH's first catalogue of nebulae, (included in WH's complete papers, edited by Dreyer in 1912) saying "Looked for but not found in 1787. It was the only object compared with `20 Sextantis,' but the star was in reality B.1414. This gives for 1860 9h57m04s, 95d49m, in perfect agreement with N3110 (Stephan XIII)." Stephan's position is actually 2 arcmin north of this one, but the agreement is close enough to make the identification clear. The two stars by the way, are SAO 137424 (20 Sex) and SAO 137400 (B.1414, from Bode's catalogue used by CH in her reduction of WH's observations). Coincidentally, there is a galaxy 2 arcmin south of WH's position. It is the one that Jack Sulentic picked up for RNGC, but it is not in MCG. The RNGC galaxy is at 10 03 47.1, -06 19 49 (GSC, B1950) and is much fainter. If WH looked for it again in 1787 at roughly this location, then I'm not surprised that he did not recover it. The identity with NGC 3518 (which see), is yet another story.

===== NGC 3110 17.5" (3/25/95): fairly faint, fairly small, oval 3:2 NNW-SSE, broad weak concentration. A mag 13.5 star is 40" NW of center and a mag 14 star lies 1.7' S. Forms a close (interacting) pair with MCG -01-26-013 1.8' SW.