NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6450 (Swift II-61) is another lost object. Dreyer copied the position correctly into NGC, but abbreviated Swift's description of the surrounding star field. Swift's full description is "vF, vS; B * f 8 seconds; bet 2 sts." This is the only galaxy that Swift found on the night of 1 July 1884. There are several galaxies in the area that Swift could have seen, but none matching the field described by him. Howe also could not find the object, though he actually searched for it three nights, not just two as in Dreyer's IC2 note. I looked at positions suggested by digit errors (+- 10 minutes, +- 1 hour, +- 1 degree) with no success. Jeff Corder suggested in early June 2006 that this might be identical to NGC 6452. However, the stars near N6452 are not very bright (12th to 14th mag), nor is there a "B * f 8 seconds". Also, Marth found N6452 with Lassell's huge (for its time) 48-inch reflector, describing it as "eeF, S". Swift's description with his 16-inch refractor is consistent with Marth's size estimate, but not with his brightness -- I'd be surprised if Swift could even see N6452, let alone sweep it up.