NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort
(This is a very very beta version)
NGC5309
Basic Information
Location and Magnitude
Right Ascension: 13:49:55.0
Declination: -15:46:18
Constellation: VIR
Visual Magnitude:
Historic Information
Discoverer: Swift E.
Year of discovery: 1887
Discovery aperture: 16.0
Observational
Summary description: vF, pS, R, bet * and D *
Sub-type: NF
Corwin's Notes
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NGC 5309. This was found the night of 27 April 1887 by Edward Swift, Lewis's
teenaged son. He calls it "vF, pS, R, between a star and a coarse double star
following." There is nothing in the position given in Swift's list, and I
do not find reasonable candidates at big digit errors (1 hour in RA, 1 degree
in Dec, etc), but there is a possible 10 arcmin digit error (more below).
Wolfgang's candidate may be too faint for either Swift (father or son) to have
seen, and the flanking stars are faint, too (the double star is much more
south than east of this galaxy). My own candidate, while somewhat brighter,
is further from Swift's position, though the declination offset (-9 arcmin
10 arcsec) suggests a digit error. The RA offset (+18 sec) is also in line
with the other RA offsets of galaxies found that same night by Edward (see
NGC 4740 for more on this), so the position at least is suggestive. However,
the "coarse double star following" is as much south as east, and is also quite
faint.
So, I've put question marks on both objects in the position table.