Harold Corwin

IC 3339 = NGC 4411. Here is another obvious identity that might have come about because neither Dreyer nor Schwassmann checked the NGC carefully (there are several of these in Schwassmann's list -- see e.g. IC 3098 and IC 3113 -- and I expect we'll turn up a few more before we're done). However, in this case, Dreyer was distracted by Bigourdan's discovery of a second object nearby. Dreyer's Note in IC2 tells what happened next: "[NGC] 4411 I assume that B. 298, 12h 19m 40s, 80d 21m, vF, L, 2.5 arcmin is identical with this." (See NGC 4411 for more on Bigourdan 298.)

I'm actually puzzled by this because the NGC and IC positions for NGC 4411 and I3339 are almost identical, differing by only one second of time and 0.2 arcmin. Why should Dreyer choose another object 17 seconds of time away when he had an obvious candidate in the same place? Just the distraction, I presume. Or, as I've suggested elsewhere in these notes, Dreyer was getting tired of cataloguing nebulae, and was not paying as much attention as he might have earlier in his career.

As far as I can tell, Adelaide Ames was the first to suggest this identity.

In any case, Schwassmann's description -- "* 11, north-following [is] surrounded by much nebulosity" -- is appropriate, and makes clear that he was indeed seeing the galaxy.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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