NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 4019 = IC 755. Though JH's position is 2 min 16 sec and 6 arcmin off the true position of IC 755, the IC object is the only galaxy in the area to have a 9th magnitude star 5 arcmin southeast, matching JH's note. Other possibilities include NGC 3996 (but seen in the same sweep as N4019), NGC 4037 (this has an 8th magnitude star following by 6-7 arcmin, but the star is a bit north, not south), and CGCG 069-010 (but that has a pretty low surface brightness and no bright star near). There is nothing at JH's position, so I'm pretty sure that IC 755 is the correct object. Malcolm notes, however, that there is a 9th magnitude star southeast of JH's (empty) position. This throws a little doubt on the IC 755 identity, but requires that JH's object be a comet. This is a possibility, but I think that the equality with IC 755 is more likely. ----- Using JPL's "Small Body Identifier", I found that Comet 55/P Tempel-Tuttle was about five degrees north of JH's position on the date of his observation of NGC 4019. However, its predicted nuclear magnitude was 23.5. That, and the position offset effectively rules it out as JH's object. Checking the sweep (419 on 23 April 1832), I see that the RA is not only marked with a colon, but that JH thought he was observing H III 3 = NGC 4028. The position measurement is one of those that JH referred to a previous measure, in this case a star with a clock, beat, and wire listed (11 51 45, -19, leaving the field), but no NPD index. NGC 4019 has "-19" for the clock, "-38" for the beat, "X" (leaving the field) for the wire, and "2 41 50" for the NPD index. The nearest star in the sweep is [beta] Leonis at "11 40 35", "-15", "1", and "2 19 36". Re-reducing JH's observation yeilds a position with the RA two minutes larger than JH's published value. This brings JH's object to within 20 seconds of time of the position of IC 755, so makes it even more likely that the IC object is also JH's.

===== NGC 4019 18" (4/9/05): fairly faint, edge-on NW-SE, 1.0'x0.2', low even surface brightness. A mag 10 star is 5.5' SE and 2' following this star is CGCG 069-029. The identification of this galaxy with NGC 4019 is very uncertain as it matches the description of the brighter star to the SE but is a poor match in position. Listed as nonexistent in the RNGC.