Harold Corwin

IC 336, IC 341, IC 353, IC 354, and IC 360. These eF diffuse nebulae were identified by reference to Barnard's drawing in A.N. 3253, and to his drawing and photograph in M.N. 57, 12, 1896. Barnard's sketches are more or less confirmed by PSS plates O and E441 and O and E31. Curiously, Dreyer did not include all of the patches of nebulosity shown by Barnard, and those that he did list in the IC are not necessarily the brightest, even as shown on Barnard's sketchs. With the possible exceptions of I353 and I354, these nebulae are probably not associated with the Pleiades, but appear more likely to be Galactic reflecting nebulae (see, for example, Allan Sandage's article in AJ 81, 954, 1976 for more on these fascinating objects). Note also that the IC position of IC 360 (which also see) is 5m in error.

Here is a bit of explanation for that last sentence of the previous paragraph which, in retrospect, is not quite right (I repeat this in the note for IC 360, below). The position I now (October 2013) estimate on the DSS (first survey, blue plate) is 04 07.8 +25 36 (B1950), while Dreyer's 1860 position in the IC precesses to 04 11.5 +25 54 (B1950), about 4 minutes off in RA and 0.3 degrees in Dec. Careful reading of Barnard's sketch in AN 3253 shows the nebula to be just a little less than a degree south, and perhaps a bit east, of 44 Tau. I put the position on the chart at 04 08.2 +25 32 (B1950), not significantly different than what I see on the DSS1 blue plate. Dreyer's 1860 position is clearly off, and can now be confidently discarded. This nebula, by the way, shows up on DSS images almost better as a patch of dust obscuring stars behind it, than it does as "bright" nebula overlaid on the same stars.

― 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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