NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 5070 is almost certainly NGC 5072. This is in a relatively scattered group of at least six galaxies. The problem object, N5070, was discovered by Swift in June of 1886. Swift's position is, not unusually, rather poor and points to nothing at all well southwest of NGC 5072. His description is telling, however: "eeF; eS; vF * v close; looks like a D * at first; another nr; 6 in field, [N5072, N5076, N5077, N5079, N5088]." The only galaxy in the area that matches this is N5072 (it has a star superposed on the faint corona near the overexposed nucleus), so it looks like Steve Gottlieb's suggestion is correct: Swift and d'Arrest saw the same object. Given this, the RC3 (and RNGC) number should read "N5072 = N5070." Swift also claimed to have found at least two other nebulae in this area. See IC 884 for that story. ----- After some correspondence with Gary Kronk about NGC 5070, I've put colons on the identification with NGC 5072. While the description of the object itself is compelling, Swift does mention seeing six nebulae in the field. Could he have picked up MCG -02-34-031? This is very near a much brighter star, BD -11 3492, that Swift surely would have mentioned in his description. So, his sixth nebula, and NGC 5070, remains a bit of a mystery.

===== NGC 5070 See observing notes for NGC 5072.