Type | Asterism |
---|---|
Magnitude | Right Ascension | 14h 22' 13.4" (2000) |
Declination | 60° 34' 11" S |
Constellation | Centaurus |
Harold Corwin
IC 4400 is a pretty compact group of six brighter stars with half a dozen fainter scattered among them. Four of them make a fairly tight trapezoid (noted by Andris Lauberts for ESO), while two others are a bit off to the northwest. The four stars are the ones that all of us have adopted for the group. I'm now calling this "IC 4400e".
However, Innes notes that the object is "elongated." Did his object also include the additional 2 stars about an arcminute to the northwest? If so, the J2000 position becomes 14 22 11.0, -60 34 02. These are far enough away that I'm not sure that they would have merged with the others, even with a night of very bad seeing. Still, an observation with a 6- or 7-inch refractor would be useful to confirm this speculation.
In the meantime, mindful of Innes's "elongated" comment, I am giving the position of IC 4400 as that of all six stars. But I have also listed the position for just the four eastern stars. You may choose.― IC Notes by Harold Corwin
Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.
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