Harold Corwin

IC 3281 may well be a defect. There is nothing at either of Schwassmann's positions (only a few arcsec apart). Even though he has two measurements of the object, they are probably just that: two measurements on a single plate, referred to comparison stars in different zones across the plate.

The object is unlikely to be the faint star that Wolfgang chose if only because it is almost two arcmin away from the nominal position. Schwassmann's descriptions make it unlikely in any case: "pB, cS, R, N, li[ke] *" and "cB, pS, R, li * 10-9, d = 25 [arcsec]". This would be an obvious object, and there is just nothing in the area like this.

It could also be another Virgo Cluster galaxy with a measurement or reduction error. I think this is less likely as both of Schwassmann's positions are within his usual errors of being identical -- but they ARE different. I do not see any galaxy that is likely to be Schwassmann's object that is not already in his list. In particular, NGC 4365 is exactly 30 arcmin south, and NGC 4470 is 5m 10s east and 10 arcsec north. But he already lists both, so I do not think that IC 3281 is either one of them.

So, another lost nebula.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page