NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7413 and NGC 7414 are two nebulae found on 2 Sept 1886 by Lewis Swift. Both are entered in NGC as "eeF," "R," and "v diffic;" with N7413 being "pS" and "s of 2", and N7414 being "S" and "n of 2." This, and the positions, would imply a pair of similar galaxies, oriented north-south, separated by 2.5 arcmin. Curiously, Howe has two apparently independent observations of NGC 7413 in which he corrects the position by 14 seconds of time. However, he does not mention NGC 7414 in either observation. If the pair were nearly identical objects as the NGC implies, then I would have expected Howe to at least mention N7414 and give a correction to its RA, too. Turning to Swift's original paper, we find considerably different descriptions for the two objects. N7413 = Sw IV-87 is "eeF, pS, R, e diff; 8 or 10 sts in an irregular line p; s of 2." N7414 = Sw IV-88 is "eeeF, S, R, eee diff; n of 2." Given this, I find it considerably easier to believe in RNGC's choice of the very faint northeastern galaxy as N7414. NGC 7413 does have the irregular line of stars preceding it, so this is pretty clearly Swift's object, even though his RA is well off. Howe, however, did get the correction right.

===== NGC 7413 18" (10/25/08): very faint, very small, round, 20" diameter. A string of stars extends SW. A very faint galaxy (PGC 70008) 5.4' ENE that is identified as NGC 7414 in the RNGC was not seen. 17.5" (9/19/87): faint, extremely small, round, weak concentration. Several fairly bright stars lie SW including a mag 10 star 3.8' SW and a mag 11 star 6.1' SW.