Harold Corwin

There are a few candidates for this object -- but it is more likely lost. Swift found his object on 26 July 1897, during his last full summer of sweeping up new nebulae at Lowe Observatory. Andris suggested in ESO-B that it might be ESO 467-G047 one minute of time west and 9 arcmin north. But that galaxy is neither round, nor does it have an 8th magnitude star preceding as Swift noted (Swift's full description from his last list reads "eF, pS, R, 8m * p").

This also may be MCG -05-52-063 six minutes of time west and 7.5 arcminutes north; that has a 7th magnitude star to the west-southwest and could otherwise match Swift's description. But other galaxies Swift found the same night (IC 5029, IC 5030, IC 5157, IC 5179, and IC 5304) are generally east of Swift's positions by up to three minutes of time, while the declinations are usually within a couple of arcminutes (ignoring the digit errors in the Decs for IC 5029 and IC 5030). So, the position alone is enough to make MCG -05-52-063 merely a suggestion, too, barely worth noting here, let alone in the position table.

Another candidate is ESO 533- G 024 = MCG -05-52-071, 52 arcminutes north of Swift's position; the RA is the same. This is also the brightest galaxy within a degree or so of Swift's place. Arguing against this are the other galaxies that Swift found the same night with their systematic eastward RA differences from Swift's positions and generally correct (within the errors) declinations. Also, the star to the west is 11th magnitude, hardly the "8m" that Swift estimated.

So, there are no good candidates for IC 5214 that I've yet seen. Given Swift's bad positions from his last year of observing, perhaps a search over a wider RA range would be appropriate.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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