Harold Corwin

IC 5079 may be, but also may not be, the double star that I've listed in the position table. I had not noticed the duplicity of the star before now (November 2015); it is a very close double not in the latest Washington Catalog available on VizieR. Perhaps the second star helps explain Innes's observation. He found his object on 26 Nov 1897 with a 7-inch refractor in Cape Town, and described it as "Equal to a 9.7 mag star, elongated 15 arcsec; perhaps a small group of stars or a ring nebula." Unfortunately, his position is a "Circle reading", given to only full minutes of time and arc.

The double the only object obvious near his position, and it has one or two fainter companions that might have enhanced the look of nebulosity about it. AC2000.2 has the B-magnitude as 12.6, though -- even allowing for an approximate visual scale, this is a long way from "9.7 mag".

I'm still doubtful.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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