NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

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NGC5391

 

Basic Information


Location and Magnitude


Right Ascension: 13:57:36.5
Declination: +46:19:26
Constellation: CVN
Visual Magnitude:

Historic Information


Discoverer: Swift L.
Year of discovery: 1884
Discovery aperture: 16.0

Observational


Summary description: F, vS, * close
Sub-type: NF

Corwin's Notes

===== NGC 5391 is probably not MCG +08-25-054 though taken as such by RNGC and Wolfgang Steinicke. While it is somewhat brighter (B = 16.4, V = 15.4, and R = 14.8) than my first choice, its position is off Swift's by 32 seconds in RA and 3.6 arcminutes in Dec. Furthermore, there is no star "very close" to the galaxy as Swift notes in his description. Instead, the object he saw may be 2MASX J13574275+4628099 8.7 arcminutes north of Swift's position. That galaxy does have a star "very close". Given that a simple 10 arcminute correction to Swift's original position also puts the galaxy well within Swift's nominal errors (2-3 arcminutes, exclusive of blunders) of his position, and the fit to at least part of the description, this is at least a reasonable candidate to consider. I do have some lingering doubt. Swift's full description from his first paper reads, "F, vS; to nu. * v close." While I presume that "to nu." means something like, "brighter in the middle to a nucleus" -- which would indeed be appropriate for the galaxy -- Swift's brightness estimate is several steps brighter than I would expect for this galaxy. The SDSS magnitudes convert to B = 16.8, V = 15.7, and R = 14.9. Swift would normally describe a galaxy this faint as "eeF" or even "eeeF", if he could see it at all. In addition, there are several brighter galaxies in the area including UGC 8876 and CGCG 246-029, as well as MCG +08-25-054 that Swift did not find. Furthermore, he ran across NGC 5425 on the same night and called it "vvF"; its SDSS magnitudes convert to B = 14.5, V = 13.7, and R = 13.2. All of this leads me to put colons on the identification with the 2MASS object. It is very faint for Swift to have found.