Harold Corwin

IC 2042 is nothing but a star. Innes, in one observation of 5 Feb 1897, claims to have seen it enshrouded in a nebula 1 arcmin in diameter. There is no nebula on the sky survey plates, and the star has not been noted as being peculiar in any way. I've adopted the Tycho-2 position.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

Harold Corwin

NGC 1474 is probably the same as IC 2002 at 03 54 30.3, +10 42 24 (J2000.0 from GSC). In addition to the problem with the original position, RNGC got the Dec sign wrong, and that incorrect sign was copied into NGC 2000.0.

NGC 1474 was discovered in early in October 1864 by Albert Marth using William Lassell's 48-inch reflector at Malta, and was only observed once. The position is rough, as are many of Marth's. Of the other nine objects that he found that same night, two (N1141/2) have declination errors of 30 arcmin, another (N7575) has a 1 degree dec error, and two others (N7519 and N7593) have RA errors of 30 seconds of time.

IC 2002 was found 21 Dec 1903 by Javelle with the large refractor at Nice. He measured the galaxy micrometrically, so the IC position is pretty good. This galaxy is UGC 2898 = MCG +02-10-003, and also occurs in CGCG. While Marth's description ("very faint, small, round") does not match Javelle's very well, especially in ellipticity ("... elongated along the meridian ..."), there is no other galaxy in the area that Marth is likely to have seen. Nevertheless, the N1474 identification with IC 2002 must be an uncertain one. Perhaps NGC 1474 is really another star.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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

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