Harold Corwin

IC 793 = NGC 4445. IC 793 is the only nebula that Swift found on 6 May 1888. His description, "eF, S, eE; 3 others in field", was adopted almost unchanged by Dreyer for the first IC, so offers no clues beyond what we have in the IC itself.

Swift's position precedes NGC4445 by about 15 seconds of time, and his description suggests that he certainly saw the same galaxy as d'Arrest. My guess is that Swift did not have either the NGC or d'Arrest's monograph in hand when he prepared his 8th list for AN, so he really did believe that the nebula was a "nova."

Since the galaxy is in a moderately rich part of the Virgo Cluster, Swift's other three nebulae are probably also nearby NGC galaxies, most likely NGC4424, NGC4442, and NGC4451. If Swift did not have d'Arrest's monograph, I'm a bit surprised that he did not include NGC4424 and NGC4451 in his 8th list, given that neither was recorded by the Herschel's. Perhaps (pure speculation) he was clouded out before he could estimate positions for them.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin