NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 5736. This is one of Swift's sixth list objects which he communicated to Dreyer before publication. In this case, the NGC position is virtually spot on the modern position -- but Swift's published position is over 4 arcmin away. Still, the identification is certain as this is the brightest of the three galaxies in the area (the largest is UGC 9490, an edgewise spiral with a rather low surface brightness). This tinkering by Swift with his positions was almost a hallmark in his lists. In another case (NGC 6039 = NGC 6042, NGC 6040, and NGC 6041 in the Hercules Cluster; see these for more), Swift's revised positions are very good and agree well with Stephan's (who found them independently). Yet in the rest of the cluster, Swift's positions are as poor as ever. Is it possible that he fudged his data a bit to make them look better than they really were? Possibly, possibly ...

===== NGC 5736 24" (5/11/13): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 WNW-ESE, 45"x30", small bright core. Forms a pair with CGCG 76-9 2.7' NE. The companion appeared very faint and small, slightly elongated, low surface brightness, 20"x15". 17.5" (6/20/01): very faint, small, elongated 4:3 ~E-W, 0.9'x0.7'. Contains a 10" brighter core. Collinear with a pair of mag 13.5/14 stars 4' NE. A 2.4' pair of mag 10 and 11 stars are located 11' NNE and 8' N, respectively.