NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 5744. There are two candidates for this, each roughly the same distance from the nominal position. Since the Leander McCormick RAs are usually too far east, my inclination is to take the SBc galaxy to the west (ESO 580-G014) as the one that Ormond Stone saw. This also has the slight additional advantage of being at exactly the declination as that recorded by Stone. However, the galaxy to the east (ESO 580-G023) has a higher surface brightness (it is a compact and slightly distorted S0), and seems that it would be more likely to be seen during a sweep. It is, however, further off in both RA and Dec, so I am less inclined, on purely positional grounds, to take it as Stone's object. So, given the skimpiness of Stone's description (m = 15.5, D = 0.2 arcmin, and the note "neb?") along with the usual poor RA, I'm simply listing both objects and letting you choose whichever one you think is correct. If you could drop me a line letting me know which one you can see most easily, I'd appreciate it. This clearly needs some visual work. Steve Gottlieb has answered the call! His observation of the eastern galaxy matches Stone's description very well. The western galaxy is not only fainter, but the lower surface brightness makes it more difficult to see. It seems likely then, that Stone picked up ESO 580-G023, so that is the one that I've put colons on, leaving the question marks for ESO-G014.

===== NGC 5744 18" (5/29/05): faint, very small, round, 0.4' diameter. No details were visible in this small galaxy. A striking 1.3' string of 3 stars lies 10' E with mag 9.3 HD 130194 at the north end. NGC 5744 is listed as nonexistent in the RNGC. The NGC identification is uncertain and may apply to this galaxy or ESO 580-014 = MCG -03-38-001. ESO 580-014 appeared very low surface brightness, moderately large. Appears as a 1' very hazy glow with no core. Picked up while viewing NGC 5726 14' WNW.