Harold Corwin

IC 394 does not exist. Though suspected twice near N1667 by Bigourdan, he noted it the second time in January 1901 as "Object only glimpsed and whose existence is not very certain." His first observation in December 1888 is not much more informative in spite of being considerably longer:

At the indicated position [-15.6s, -2'15" from BD -06 995] I suspect a very diffuse nebula, maybe pretty extended, extremely faint, and very close to the extreme limit of visibility. This object could be formed by a few very faint and pretty scattered stars.

There is, in fact, nothing in the area, not even faint stars. The position is about half way between NGC 1667 and BD -06 995 in a void. The three nearest stars are about an arcminute west and form a north-south line about two arcminutes long. I don't see how they could be made into the object Bigourdan describes, so this is almost certainly one of his "fausse images".

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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