Harold Corwin

IC 580 = NGC 3069. Discovered by Dreyer with Lord Rosse's 72-inch, the faint NGC galaxy is pretty well-placed by him at 5 arcmin north-northwest of NGC 3070. He does comment, however, "Clouds," which would account for his remaining caution in describing the object: "... an object which I have little doubt is a vF, vS neb, perhaps lE". Though the NGC position is a little over an arcminute southeast of the galaxy, there is no doubt that it was seen by Dreyer.

Why, then, did Javelle think it was a "nova"? That he made some mistake is suggested since he claims, in a footnote to IC 584, that that galaxy is "Distinct from NGC 3069 and NGC 3070." Which two of the galaxies in the area he thought were the NGC pair is not clear, though.

In any event, Javelle's position for the galaxy makes clear that he saw the same object as did Dreyer; the identity is secure.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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