Harold Corwin

While doing his survey of IC objects, Malcolm noticed that this galaxy was included in IC while its brighter neighbor, ESO 199-IG012, was not. Was there a reason for this?

Found by Stewart on a 24-inch Bruce plate, IC 1877 is positively identified by its position and description, especially the position angle 170 deg (the modern value from ESO and ESO-LV is 153 deg). The brighter companion has a position angle of 19 deg, clearly different, and is about two arcmin on to the northeast. There is little possibility that Stewart mistook this for object for I1877. It is important to note that Stewart had only one plate of this area, so could not confirm the three objects he found on it. All are marked "suspected" as a result.

Curious about this, Malcolm asked the folks at CfA if they could examine the original plate. They were good enough to make Polaroid copies of the area around IC 1877 and ESO 199-IG012. Both galaxies are well-shown on these copies of the plate, with IC 1877 in Stewart's position angle. However, the brighter object has a peculiar flattened triangular appearance with some apparent halo-like plumes projecting from its north and south ends. It looks similar to a plate defect about 30 arcmin to the east-northeast, so I think that Stewart assumed it to be a flaw.

So, while many IC objects discovered on photographs are indeed plate flaws, here is a case of a real galaxy apparently mistaken for a defect, and so NOT included in the IC!

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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