NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 4967, NGC 4973 = IC 847, and NGC 4974. Discovered by William Herschel on the night of 14 April 1789, these are presumably the brightest in the group of six or seven galaxies in the area. Herschel's positions, though, are roughly a minute of time too large, and he gives only one position for N4973 and N4974. Dreyer recognized the problem with the positions in this sweep (921) and another (1001) which, unfortunately, did not cover these objects. In a note to WH's second catalogue, Dreyer gives "modern" positions from JH (N4967), Rumker (N4973 and 4974), and Howe (N4973). If we accept these positions (and I'm inclined to as they refer to the brightest three galaxies in the group, and do not disagree with WH's relative positions of N4967 and N4973/4), then WH's description of the relative positions of N4973 and N4974 needs to be changed. He claims that his "place is that of the 2nd, the other is 3' or 4' south-preceding." This should read "... 3' or 4' north- preceding." CGCG, MCG, and RNGC all have the identifications of N4973 and N4974 garbled. (MCG, in addition, gets the identification of IC 847 wrong; it is actually the same galaxy as N4973 if we trust Swift's position.) Here are the correct identifications: N4973 = I847 = CGCG 1303.4+5357 = CGCG 270-049 = CGCG 271-005 = = MCG +09-22-006 and N4974 = CGCG 1303.8+5356 = CGCG 270-051 = CGCG 271-007 = MCG +09-22-009

===== NGC 4967 18" (6/27/03): very faint, fairly small, round, very low surface brightness glow, ~0.8' diameter. A mag 14 star is at the SW edge. Located 7' S of NGC 4973 in a compact group of 5 galaxies.