NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3882 24" (4/10/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): very unusual setting for a galaxy as this object is buried in a rich Centaurus Milky Way star field only 5.3¡ from the Galactic plane. At 200x, it appeared fairly bright in the 24", fairly large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 2'x1', weak concentration. A mag 13 star sits at the SE edge and 4 or 5 fainter stars are superimposed on the unconcentrated glow. A faint star barely off the NW end appears to be a very close double. Located 2.4' WSW of mag 8.8 HD 102323. This galaxy was misclassified as a diffuse nebula in the RNGC and as a reflection nebula in the Sky Atlas 2000.0, probably because it is embedded in the Milky Way.