NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 6965 = IC 5058. This is the northern-most of the brighter galaxies in the NGC 6962 group. It was first found by Lord Rosse in 1857, and labeled "b" in his diagram. Unfortunately, it was apparently not seen again until Bigourdan went through the area a fifth time in 1891. Thus, the NGC position was apparently estimated by Dreyer from the diagram, and is not good enough to unambiguously identify the object. Bigourdan's entry under the number simply says "I can't see anything at the place indicated by Lord Rosse." He searched for it only once in August 1885. However, Bigourdan actually did see NGC 6965. It appears in his fourth list of new nebulae under the number Big 436, so received the number IC 5058. He has five measurements of it, so the position in the IC is good. That the object really is NGC 6965 could perhaps be questioned as we have only Lord Rosse's sketch to rely on. However, it is one of the brighter objects in the area, and the diagram is good enough to support the identification.

===== NGC 6965 18" (8/1/05): faintest of six in the NGC 6962 group. Appeared very faint, very small, round, 15"-20" diameter. At first I thought it had a faint stellar nucleus with direct vision, but with careful viewing this was a mag 15-15.5 star at the south edge. Located 1.3' N of a mag 13 star and on a line with two mag 14 stars a similar distance to the east and west. This galaxy is misidentified as NGC 6963 in most modern catalogues. 17.5" (7/16/88): very faint, small, slightly elongated ~N-S, broad concentration, barely visible continuously with direct vision. Located 10' N of NGC 6962 within a triangle of mag 13-14 stars including a mag 14 star 1.4' E and a mag 13 star 1.3' S. Faintest of six in NGC 6962 group. This galaxy is misidentified in the RNGC, UGC, MCG, CGCG as NGC 6963. 17.5" (8/31/86): very faint (requires averted), small, slightly elongated ~N-S, faint stellar nucleus. 13" (8/23/84): requires averted vision to confirm, similar to NGC 6961. 13.1" (7/27/84): extremely faint, very small, round. Located 10' N of NGC 6962 within a small equilateral triangle of faint stars.