Harold Corwin

IC 110 might be a double star, but is more likely one of Bigourdan's illusory objects, or it suffers from a misidentified comparison star. He found it the night of 5 November 1885, and based his position for it on an estimated offset from IC 111: "Mag 13.5 object situated near Big 121 [IC 111] at PA = 320 deg, distance = 0.8 arcmin; it could be a little nebulous."

There is nothing in that position (there is also nothing in the place of IC 111, which see). About 30 arcsec northeast of the estimated place, however, is a faint double star that Bigourdan might possibly have seen. Is this IC 110? I doubt it. Since there is no trace of IC 111 at its place -- nevertheless micrometrically measured -- IC 110 is just as unlikely to be in its estimated place. The possibility still exists that it is a real star or galaxy, but I do not see a pair of objects of the right descriptions in the area offset from a star similarly bright as the nominal comparison star (BD +33 250).

Also, with each star at V = 17.1 (converted from the SDSS photometry), these two stars are probably beyond the reach of Bigourdan's 30-cm refractor. They should perhaps have another query added to the name!

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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