NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7553 is almost certainly the faint galaxy northeast of NGC 7550. LdR and his observers saw it at least four times, and it is correctly placed in the diagram that Dreyer included in the 1880 monograph. LdR also mentions seeing a fifth nebula in the group; this would be NGC 7558, credited to Marth in the NGC, but seen first by LdR fourteen years earlier in 1850. d'A and Schultz both saw the brightest three of the group, while JH picked up the first two, and WH saw just NGC 7550. Yann Pothier has suggested that LdR also saw the faint galaxy -- with its equally faint superposed star -- at 23 15 38.9 +18 58 18 (J2000, HCsv). However, all the suspected nebulae in the five different observations are accounted for as noted just above, so I do not think that LdR or his observers saw this object.

===== NGC 7553 24" (12/28/13): faint to fairly faint, small, round, 18" diameter. A 12" pair of mag 15.5 stars was resolved 1.3' SE. In addition, a 7" pair of mag 16.1/16.4 stars was noticed 3.5' ENE and often was merged into a single slightly fuzzy glow at 282x. 24" (12/1/13): faint to fairly faint, small, round, 20" diameter. Contains a faint, quasi-stellar nucleus. Located 3.8' ENE of NGC 7549 in HCG 93. 18" (8/25/06): very faint, very small, round, 15" diameter. A very faint and close pair of mag 15 stars lies 1.4' SE. 18" (9/3/05): very faint, very small, round, 10" diameter. Contains a sharp stellar nucleus in steady moments. Located 4' E of NGC 7549 within HCG 93. 18" (8/27/05): very faint, extremely small, round, 0.2' diameter, occasional stellar nucleus. Located 3.9' E of NGC 7549 in HCG 93. 17.5" (9/7/96): very faint, very small, round. Located 3.9' E of NGC 7549 = HCG 93b. An extremely faint and close double star ~1.5' SE also appears as a nebulous object at times. Faintest of five (along with NGC 7558) in HCG 93.