Harold Corwin

IC 3006 is probably a plate defect. It was found by Royal Frost on a four- hour Bruce reflector plate taken at Arequipa, and was also recorded nearly 30 years later by Adelaide Ames at the same position, on the same plate. There is nothing near that position on the POSS1 and the DSS but a star about an arcmin northwest.

Frost's and Ames's descriptions make an interesting contrast: Frost says "R, bM, magn 15", while Ames has m = 16.2, maximum diameter 41 arcsec, ellipticity (diamin/diamax) = 0.6, and a "class" that decodes as "irregular, bM but no N". All this is consistent with a description of a small plate defect.

We can someday check the Harvard plate to be sure -- if the plate is not thrown out in the meantime (see e.g. B.E. Schaefer, S&T 105, No. 3, p. 42, 2003).

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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