NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7414. Steve Gottlieb wrote in August 2010 that he had finally seen this galaxy. He was at a site in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California, 8200 feet above sea level, observing on a splendid, still, dark night. Yet, even with his 18-inch reflector, he had trouble spotting NGC 7414. With averted vision, knowing exactly where to look, he had it in view only 25% of the time he swept over its place. With that kind of an observation, he suggested that this may not have been the object that Swift saw. Yet, since it is the only companion to NGC 7413, my feeling is that it must be the galaxy found by Swift. I think that Swift may have found NGC 7413 (which see for more) while sweeping, then noticed NGC 7414 in the field. It is nevertheless one of the faintest of Swift's discoveries. Other galaxies with the same "eeeF, eee diff" description in his 4th list are considerably brighter: NGC V 6034 13.9 6275 15.1 7066 (14.0) from RC3 m_B = 14.8 and approximate B-V = 0.8 7414 15.7 and 7413 14.2 for reference These magnitudes come from SDSS, their g-band "Cmodel" magnitudes converted with a transformation equation from their Web site V = g - 0.59(g-r) - 0.01 (this equation is really only appropriate for stars -- galaxies have complex spectra that complicate magnitude and color transformations -- but is still useful for comparing one galaxy in the same system to another). So, while I think that Swift probably did see the object, Steve's comment is well-justified!

===== NGC 7414 18" (8/12/10): extremely faint, very small, irregularly round ~15"x12", required averted vision and visible at most 25% of the time but could repeatedly glimpse in the same position once the location was pinpointed. Based on the difficulty of this object in superb conditions, I feel this galaxy was probably too faint to have been discovered by Swift with his 16" refractor. 18" (11/22/08): Not seen at 175x or 283x. 18" (10/25/08): Not seen at 175x or 283x. 17.5" (9/2/89): Not seen at 220x.