Harold Corwin

IC 3310 is a star superposed on the northwestern arm of NGC 4396. However, Bigourdan has an incorrect position for his comparison star listed in his big table. This led to an incorrect RA in his CR list and the IC. When the position is corrected (his approximate offsets of his comparison star from NGC 4379 ARE correct), the object turns out to be the star on the arm of NGC 4396. He has four observations of the star which pin it down precisely.

Curiously, Bigourdan measured NGC 4396 itself on the same night using the same comparison star about two arcminutes northeast of the center of the galaxy. Yet he somehow confused the field so that IC 3310 was taken to be another star nearly 45 seconds of time away by both the Harvard and Mt. Wilson observers.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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