NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3550. I've been curious for some time about this galaxy, called a "double nebula" in CGCG. The object actually looks triple in the DSS image -- or are those superposed stars? I have wanted to examine it on one of the digital sky surveys. Finally, the SDSS has covered the area. While the two objects to the north are certainly galaxies, the southwestern component is quite stellar. However, 2MASS has three acceptable images in its three bands. It appears that all three objects are galaxies. This is confirmed by the redshifts given by John Tonry in AJ 90, 2431, 1985 (cz = 11000 km/s for the faint southwestern galaxy, 10447 km/s for the central galaxy, and 10388 km/s for the northeastern galaxy; all the redshifts have errors of +- 15 km/s). I have, by the way, taken the object closest to the middle of the entire image as NGC 3550. It may be better to take a mean position for the entire triple object. Note, too, that both JH and Dreyer have notes discussing possible variability of the galaxy. As Dreyer concludes in 1912 in his edition of WH's papers, the only really outstanding brightness estimates suggesting that come from JH himself: His six observations run from "B" to "eF". All the other visual observations suggest "vF" or "F". There is no hint in the modern literature of any of the galaxies being a Seyfert, nor have there been any observations suggesting the existence of a supernova remnant in NGC 3550. JH probably had to contend with variable seeing and a speculum mirror of variable condition. Also see NGC 3552 where this figures in the NGC identification problems in Abell 1185.

===== NGC 3550 13.1" (3/24/84): brightest in the AGC 1185 cluster. Faint, small, round. A mag 11 star is 1.5' E and a mag 12 star 1.5' SSW. NGC 3552 lies 4.7' SSE.