Harold Corwin

These novae [IC1415 and IC1416] were found and measured once by Bigourdan during his first search for NGC 7164 (which see). Since that galaxy is about two minutes of time west of its nominal position, he did not succeed in his quest. The object he took to be N7164 is, in fact, illusory. He describes and places four stars near his nominal position perfectly, but there is only blank sky where he measured a "nebula."

Unfortunately, the two novae are also illusions, though there are faint stars near the places he measured. In the case of IC 1415, his distances and position angles to two neighboring stars suggest that the faint star is indeed the object he saw. However, he specifically mentions the star as being involved on one side of the nebula: it is at 21 56 09.4, +01 07 04 (B1950.0) 25 arcsec to the north of his position for the nebula, so is almost certainly not the IC object.

Bigourdan similarly pinpoints IC 1416 with respect to one of the stars near his phantom NGC 7164, 0.7 arcmin distant at PA = 340 degrees (though his measured position puts it 0.9 arcmin distant, given the GSC position for the star). The faint star in this case is 0.8 arcmin distant at PA = 5 degrees (the B1950 position is 21 56 17.1, +01 12 37). This is only 8-10 arcsec away from Bigourdan's measured position for the nova, close enough that the star might have been the object he saw. Given his lack of success with the other two objects, however, I doubt that this identification is correct.

So, in the end, we are left with two more non-existent IC objects.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page