NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 4962 = NGC 4952. Dreyer was skeptical about NGC 4962, the first of two nebulae that WH found southeast of 13 CVn (= 37 Com). The second is NGC 4966 which WH noted as "Just nf a * 8 or 9 m." This comment allowed both JH in GC and Dreyer in NGC to correctly assign N4966 = h1531 to WH's observation of III 304. But JH has no observation of the preceding nebula, III 303, and Max Wolf could not find it on a Heidelberg plate -- hence Dreyer's note in the Scientific Papers. (Dreyer also notes here some of Max Wolf's speculation on the identity of N4962, but dismisses two of Wolf's suggested identifications on the basis of WH's relative positions, and a third by noting that a 1 degree error in declination would have put the object beyond the limits of WH's sweep.) Given that WH's RA for N4966 is about half a minute off, and that his Dec is also off (but only by two minutes, within WH's standard deviation), can such an offset be used to identify an object that might be N4962? The answer is "Yes," if we are willing to accept that WH's position for it has yet another 30 seconds of RA error. The total RA error of 1 minute, combined with the 2 arcmin Dec offset, point right at NGC 4952. WH's similar descriptions are consistent with the similar magnitudes and sizes for the galaxies, and though he also found N4952, it was during a sweep nearly a month later.

===== NGC 4962 See observing notes for NGC 4952. Identification uncertain.