NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6526 = H V 9 is probably the part of M 8 southeast of the dark lane. The nebula sweeps on up to the northeast to encompass NGC 6530, the bright, well-known cluster in M 8. WH found this the 22nd of May 1784, and measured the position with respect to 51 Ophiuchi. When re-reduced using the modern position for that star, WH's position for N6526 falls at 18 04 18, -24 27.4 (J2000), well within the M 8 complex. As Dreyer notes in the Herschel papers, the GC and NGC positions are one degree too far north due to an error by Caroline Herschel in her reduction of the position. WH describes V 9 only as "Large, extended, broad, milky figure." Thus, this could apply to any part of (or even all of) M 8 (look at WH's second description of M 20 = IV 41 for another almost discrepant description of the same object). Since this was apparently his first sweep across the area, and since we know his positions were rather error-prone at the time, I think that the object he saw was, in fact, M 8. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, however, I think it fair to assign the NGC number, as I said above, to the southeastern section of the complex. See NGC 6533 for more.

===== NGC 6526 See observing notes for NGC 6523. This is the southeast portion of M8 = Lagoon Nebula.