Harold Corwin

IC 1292 was perhaps a nova, and is now lost (well, until someone does a deep spectroscopic search for it). I previously wrote: "Pickering announced it in AN 137, 71, 1895 ..." As Brian Skiff pointed out in April 2008, this isn't quite right. Williamina Fleming published an earlier paper (communicated by Pickering and appearing in AN 137, 71, 1894 = AN 3269) in which she lists the object as a "new gaseous nebula". She says, "[It] was observed, and the character of its spectrum confirmed with the 15-inch Equatorial, by Professor E.C. Pickering on October 18, 1894. It precedes Cord. DM [CD] -27d 13151 mg. 9.6 0.6s and is north 1.6', and is perhaps identical with [CD] -27d 13150 mg. 9.6 which according to the [CD] precedes 13151, 2.3s and is north 3.7' but which does not appear in the sky nor on the photograph."

Assuming the object to be a nova, Fleming must have alerted Pickering soon after the plate was taken (unfortunately, she gives no date for the plate). There is certainly no nebulous object near her listed position now. Brian has checked that that position is consistent with the offsets she gives from the CD star (the star is in Tycho-2 and GSC as 06867-01486, V = 10.6). Wolfgang has selected one of the very faint stars in the immediate area for his list, but without reference to the Harvard plate on which the object was found, this can be little more than a guess.

So, another puzzle unsolved. Brian suggests another error of some sort may be present, but given the internal consistency of Fleming's position and note, I think this is unlikely. By the way, the information in HA 60 is also accordant with that in Fleming's note.

Coming back on this in October 2018, I worked out a position for the "nebula" from Fleming's offsets and the current position of her reference star (I neglected proper motion of the star as it is small). That gave for J2000.0 18 44 45.7, -27 48 18. There is nothing obvious here, even "blinking" the blue, red, and infrared DSS images. I'm coming around to Brian's suggestion: perhaps Fleming miscalculated the nebula's approximate position, and therefore misidentified the CD stars she names.

It occurs to me, too, that Harvard plates probably still exist which might solve this mystery. Worth checking into, perhaps?

― 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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