NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7040. The faint galaxy near Harrington's position does not match Dreyer's summarized description "eF, vL, mE ns," so I was originally inclined to believe that Harrington might have seen another object. Thanks to Brian Skiff, I have recently seen the original note in AN 2479. It reads in full, "New Nebula, by M. W. Harringtion, Director of the Observatory, Ann Arbor, Mich. I wish to put on record a nebula which I found Aug. 18th of this year and which I believe to be new. Its position is RA. 21h 7m 34s Decl. N. 8d 25m. It is 67s preceding and 12' north of Argelander 8d 4632. It is so faint that I can only see it after resting my eyes in the dark a few moments. It is about 3' long by half that in bredth and is extended nearly north and south, the northern end preceding a little. Ann Arbor 1882 Oct. 31." This makes it clear that Harrington really did see the galaxy. The extension along the north-northwest/south-southeast direction is almost certainly due to the line of faint stars on the southern side of the galaxy. For the record, Harrington overstates the galaxy's size -- as I noted, he must have included the line of stars to the south. However, his the offsets (for J2000.0) from the BD star are 62.2 seconds and 12 arcmin 20 arcsec, close to his estimates.

===== NGC 7040 24" (8/31/16): fairly faint or moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, 25"x20", small brighter nucleus. A mag 15 star is at the south edge of the halo. The SDSS shows an E-W line of 3 faint stars on the south edge, though the middle "star" is classified as a galaxy. CGCG 401-006, located 8.7' SW, appeared fairly faint, small, round, 18" diameter, small bright core, stellar nucleus. 17.5" (8/10/91): faint, fairly small, diffuse, oval 3:2 NNW-SSE, low almost even surface brightness. A very faint mag 15.5 star superimposed at the south edge is identified in CGCG and UGC as an extremely compact companion with dimensions 15"x7" but NED notes this may be a close line of three stars. Forms a pair with MCG +01-54-003 = CGCG 401-006 = PGC 66355 9' SW. This galaxy appeared very faint, very small, round, bright core, faint stellar nucleus. Located almost at the center of a 3' square consisting of four mag 12.5-13.5 stars. In the same 220x field with NGC 7040 9' NE. 17.5" (8/31/86): faint, diffuse, irregularly round, no noticeable core. A faint "star" is embedded on the south edge.