Harold Corwin

As with IC 2168, Bigourdan's two observations refer to two different asterisms. The first observation, on 1 Jan 1892, is for a line of very faint stars just north of NGC 2242 (which he measured a month and a half later on 20 Feb), while the second seems to refer to a group of three rather widely separated stars southwest of NGC 2242 (there is a fourth, considerably fainter which Bigourdan apparently did not see).

In contrast to IC 2168 (which see), it is this second measurement which is in the IC. Bigourdan has a "star 13.3 at PA = 250 deg, d = 0.8 armin" which is actually at PA 280 deg, so the NGC description should read "* 13 npp 0.8 arcmin."

The position which I measured for the three stars is two seconds of time larger than Bigourdan's, placing his measured point just north of the western-most star. It is therefore possible that Bigourdan's object is simply the one star, not all three as I've supposed. In any case, both observations are well within his diameter estimate of 30 arcsec for his object, so there is no doubt that this is Bigourdan's object.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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