Harold Corwin

I am not sure about these objects. Bigourdan's position is only estimated, not measured, and his description is similarly unsure: "In the neighborhood of NGC 6459, I suspect several objects of mixed appearance which need a more powerful telescope [to verify]; at this position, I suspect two." While there are several stars nearby, his position falls in a blank spot. I've listed the two brightest stars in the area. There are two other objects nearby, both much fainter, a star and a galaxy.

So, there are some question marks in the table. Frankly, I suspect "fausse images". Bigourdan regularly pushed himself and his optics to measure objects found with much larger telescopes than his. The inevitable result was suspicion of fainter objects still. A good many are real, of course, but many others have turned out to be illusory.

Another of the objects in the neighborhood is IC 4666 (which see). Even though Bigourdan only estimated its position, too, on the same night, I am pretty sure that it is the star at Bigourdan's position.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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