NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 7741. WH's position is almost +4 arcmin off (see NGC 6882 = NGC 6885 for more on this and his other observations of 10 Sept 1784). This led Stephan to include the galaxy (which he observed in October of 1881) in his 12th list of "new" nebulae. Stephan's position is good, but his description suggests that he saw only the central regions of the object. Nearly two decades earlier, d'A had six observations of the galaxy, noting the superposed double star to the north-northwest. D'A's mean position is also pretty good. On a more modern note, the actual position of the nucleus -- if there is one buried in the blue, patchy bar -- is indeterminant, at least optically. Given that the galaxy is a big, bright, well-known spiral, I've pulled positions out of all the online astrometric catalogues that I've usually consulted for this project. The position I've finally adopted is from the 2MASS PSC for four point sources in the central part of the bar. This is an adequate representation for the galaxy, if not for the nucleus -- if there is one ...

===== NGC 7741 24" (8/30/16): at 226x; bright, fairly large, dominated by a central bar extending at least 3:1 E-W, ~45"x15". A very low surface brightness arm is attached at the west end of the bar and extends to the south. The corresponding arm extending north on the east end was less obvious and only marginally glimpsed. The arms blend into a low surface brightness halo ~2' in diameter. A nice mag 9.8/12 double star is off the NW side 2' from center. 13.1" (9/9/83): faint, moderately large, diffuse, elongated ~N-S. A pretty double star mag 9/11 at 24" is just off the north edge 2' from center and interferes with viewing.