NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6335. JH says of this, "The whole lower end of the zone is strongly affected with nebulous patches," and gives only an approximate position for it. Though included in Cederblad's catalogue of bright diffuse nebulae, there is no bright nebulosity in the area. Instead, the Southern Sky Survey films show a patchy field of star clouds, defined by the dust of dark nebulae. It is apparently these star clouds that JH saw in the spring of 1837, giving him the impression of patchy nebulosity all through his field. (Three years earlier, he happened on the same field, giving a position then about 5 minutes east; this has become NGC 6360, which see.) I've adopted the approximate center of the brightest patch of stars nearest JH's position as the position for NGC 6335. This is about a minute west of his place which lands in a relatively poor field -- in other words, in the midst of a dust cloud. Steve Gottlieb offers this recent observation of my estimated position: 24" (7/7/13): at 125x this Milky Way field (roughly 15') includes a mix of faint and moderately bright stars overlaying a bright Milky Way background glow. Includes a 6' string oriented NW to SE of mag 11-12 stars as well as a group of a half-dozen stars mag 9.5-12 stars (brightest is HD 156543) about 9' SW. Only some faint stars are visible between these groups over the glowing background, so it is not eye-catching. South of this group the background glow dims due to dust clouds. Steve's observation matches perfectly the 0.5 degree field I see in the DSSR2 image centered at 17 16 20, -30 06.8 (B1950.0; compare to JH's approximate position of 17 17 36, -30 06.1, and the NGC position 17 17 21, -30 05.9, also marked +-; both precessed to B1950.0). Finally, note, too, that JH claims his position in CGH is four degrees too far south; he corrects this on the first unnumbered errata page at the end of the CGH monograph. The correct position is in GC and NGC. JH's characterization of "The whole lower end of the zone ..." may be relevant here. Why does he call it the "lower end"? My guess is that, given Feldhausen's latitude of 33d 59m south and NGC 6335's declination of -30d 06m, the 4-degree wide sweep would have stretched from the zenith northwards, with its "lower end" toward the northern horizon. This may have contributed to the confusion about the correct north polar distance. Unfortunately, most of the observation, number 21 in the sweep, as reproduced in the Herschel Archive is too faint to read and illegible. A few words can be made out, but most can not. However, the reduced position is clearly entered as "17 09 41 +- 119 58" with the "119 58" being very dark and clearly written over another number that is consistent with "123". These are the numbers in CGH, so "119" is the apparently the correct degrees of NPD. Just to be sure that there is nothing obvious at JH's orginal CGH position, I checked that, too, on the DSSR2 and DSSI2 images -- the dominant objects around that position are dust clouds, and the background light of the Milky Way is much dimmer than at the corrected position. I do not think it is a field that would cause much comment, let alone warrant an entry in JH's observing log.

===== NGC 6335 24" (7/7/13): at 125x this Milky Way field (roughly 15') includes a mix of faint and moderately bright stars overlaying a bright Milky Way background glow. Includes a 6' string, oriented NW to SE, of mag 11-12 stars as well as a group of a half-dozen stars mag 9.5-12 stars (brightest is HD 156543) about 9' SW. Only some faint stars are visible between these groups over the glowing background, so it is not eye-catching. South of this group the background glow dims due to dust clouds.