Harold Corwin

IC 274. There is nothing much near Swift's position. About 7 arcmin northeast is a galaxy that he might have seen, however. And 3 arcmin east is a small group of stars (a double and a triple) that could also be the object he saw. Unfortunately, he does not tell us anything about the star field, so neither of these is a very solid identification.

Swift does have an interesting note attached to his description of this object: "The most diff[icult] object yet seen here [Warner Observatory in Rochester, NY]. Another still fainter suspected near." While at such faint magnitudes, it's very easy to mistake stars for galaxies and vice versa, there is in fact a faint galaxy just south-southeast of the asterism. I've included it as a possible candidate for IC 274 in the position table.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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