Andrew Cooper
Nov 21, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Faint at about 10th magnitude this morning, about 10' south-southeast of HR 3018, completely stellar in appearance

Harold Corwin

IC 2206, according to Williamina Fleming's position, is CD-34 3878. However, Dave Riddle has pointed out that less than three arcmin to the northeast is a Wolf-Rayet star, WR 9 = HD 63009 = CD-34 3879. It is also an eclipsing binary with the Wolf-Rayet component being the primary.

This matches Fleming's description of "Bright lines, Gas. Neb.", while SIMBAD has no notes about peculiarities of any kind for the brighter CD-34 3878. In particular, no spectrum is given and no emission features are noted. So, Dave is almost certainly right. SIMBAD also carries the IC number on the Wolf- Rayet star, so someone else has noticed Fleming's mistake, too.

The details are given in two articles published by Fleming, one in AN 138, 175, 1895 (which I have not seen), the other in ApJ 1, 411, 1895. There, in addition to the description, the magnitude is given as 9.5 (again matching the brighter star), and the star is identified as "Z.C. 7h 2999". This must point to an entry in one of the Harvard "zone catalogues".

I have, of course, adopted the Wolf-Rayet star as the correct object.

Finally, even though Fleming's initials are given in HA 60 as "W. P.", almost all her other published articles carry a single initial "M." I was curious about this, so suggested when I first wrote this note that the initial might simply stand for "Miss" or "Mrs." However, Dave (and a few months later, Brian Skiff) found late in 2007 that Fleming's nickname was "Mina" -- a simple web search for "Mina Fleming" will bring up several references to her and her work at Harvard.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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