NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 4889 = NGC 4884 (which see, also). This is the brightest galaxy in the Coma Cluster, and was discovered by WH in April of 1785. He found two other objects nearby, one of which is certainly NGC 4874, the second brightest galaxy in the cluster. The other one is probably NGC 4864; see it for more. Incidentally, d'A lists this galaxy has having been measured twice on the night of 5 May 1864. I think this is unlikely, and suggest instead that one of the observations credited to that night actually comes from 6 May 1864. This makes one of the night number entries in d'A's table the victim of a simple typo or transcription error. A couple of other nights are possible, of course, but those would require more than a single digit change.

===== NGC 4889 18" (4/20/12): this is the dominant cD galaxy in the Coma cluster, although NGC 4874 is surrounded by a much richer retinue of small companions. At 282x appeared fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated E-W, ~1.5'x1.2'. Strongly concentrated with a very bright, slightly elongated core that increases to the center. The closes NGC companion is NGC 4886, situated 1.0' NW. A mag 13.5 star is a similar distance SE. With careful viewing, I caught glimpses of PGC 44708, a thin edge-on superimposed at the edge of the core just 27" from the center. 17.5" (4/21/90): largest and brightest galaxy in AGC 1656 = Coma I galaxy cluster. NGC 4889 and NGC 4874 9.2' W are both surrounded by a cloud of faint galaxies. Moderately bright, fairly small, oval E-W, bright core. Several companions near including NGC 4886 1.0' NW, NGC 4894 1.9' ESE, NGC 4898 2.4' SE which are all collinear with NGC 4889 and IC 4011 1.6' N. 13" (5/14/83): fairly bright, fairly small, oval E-W. Largest and brightest in AGC 1656 = Coma I. NGC 4874 lies 7' W and several companions are near.