Harold Corwin

IC 5264 is not, in spite of a note to the contrary in one of the Helwan publications, lost. It is a perfectly good galaxy southwest of IC 1459 = IC 5265 (both of which see). Swift's position is not too good, it's true, but his description "vF, S, eeE, a ray sp of below stars; sp of 2" points right at it once we realize that the "below stars" are those described in the IC 5265 notes.

One curiosity: in his 11th list in AN, where Swift combined all of the lists of nebulae found by him at Lowe Observatory in Southern California, he has the discovery dates of IC 5264 and IC 5265 as different: 10 June 1896 and 16 June 1896, respectively. In the first list, published separately in both AJ and PASP, he has the discovery date for both as 2 September 1896. It may be possible that he found one of the galaxies while overlooking the other, but I find it hard to believe that he overlooked the brighter (by far!) while seeing the fainter.

In March 2018, Steve Gottlieb wrote that he had found this object in Barnard's observing log:

... [Barnard] discovered IC 5264 on 15 Dec 1889 while measuring IC 1459 (discovered 2 nights earlier) with the 12-inch refractor [at Lick Observatory]. Barnard wrote in his logbook, "a small faint neb'y about 4[arcminutes] S and 1[arcminute] p this neb [IC 1459]. Small and elong in parall[el] nearly [~E-W]." He didn't take the time to measure accurate offsets, but the description clearly applies to IC 5264. As this entry wasn't published or passed along to Dreyer, Swift received discovery credit in the IC.

Ironically, regarding his discovery of IC 5264, Swift wrote (in a note to his 3rd Lowe Observatory list), "I am glad I have at length found in Barnard's field a nebula his keen eye failed to see." It turns out that wasn't the case!

(Barnard's observing log is now available online at http://collections.ucolick.org/archives/attachments/ms_000300/ms_000304/MS000304-1.pdf .)

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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