NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 5451. See NGC 5447.

===== NGC 5451 18" (6/28/03): very difficult, low surface brightness glow, ~10"-15" in size, requiring averted vision to glimpse. More difficult than two mag 15.5 stars separated by 13", which are location 1' WSW. The combined glow of these stars could easily mislead the observer into logging these as NGC 5451! 18" (6/21/03): initially I picked up a small, hazy glow nearly collinear with a mag 12.9 star just north of the core of M101 and a slightly fainter star due west. But in good moments, this very small glow resolved into two stellar objects, probably appearing slightly hazy due to the background glow of the outer halo. After a more careful view, I noticed an extremely faint knot with averted vision, ~15" diameter, located ~2' ENE of this pair -- this is NGC 5451. It seems likely that the observation from 6/7/97 refers to the pair of faint stars that initially confused me. 17.5" (6/7/97): this is a difficult, low contrast HII region in M101 located ~5' WNW of center. Appears very faint, extremely small, round, starry center?