Andrew Cooper
Jan 31, 2011    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 60x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6.5 Moon: 0%

A small galaxy almost lost in the glare of a bright star (HD91805 @ mag 6.1) about 2' north of the galaxy, no core or detail visible, about 2' across

Harold Corwin

NGC 3366 = IC 2592. John Herschel has a note: "The minute of RA is doubtful. The written record makes it 47; but as this is impossible from the context, 37 is assumed." Dreyer only noted in NGC that the RA was "very doubtful" and that the bright star that John Herschel saw nearby was not in two catalogues.

The actual RA is 27 (B1830); that is allowed in the context of the sweep. The next non-stellar object in the sweep is NGC 3446 at RA 10 44 44.6 (B1830), and the preceding object is NGC 3261 at 10 21 46.6 (again B1830). John Herschel assumed a 10 minute error, but the actual 20 minute error still fits into the sweep.

The galaxy was rediscovered by Delisle Stewart on an Arequipa plate taken about 70 years after John Herschel's sweep. Stewart made no errors in this entry, but he also did not note that NGC 3366 was missing. Perhaps the nominal position is off the edge of his plate. Since he used a one-hour plate (number 3636), he did not give the central position of the plate, but simply included the plate number in a long paragraph of one-hour plates that he searched.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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