Harold Corwin

IC 2622 = NGC 3508 (which see), and probably also = NGC 3505 (also which see). Swift's position is not very good, but his note "like a double star" is exactly right -- there is a star superposed just northeast.

The identity with NGC 3505 is now (July 2016) sure; I've looked at John Herschel's sweep, and have re-reduced his observation. In that observation, he also notes the "* 14 v near".

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

Harold Corwin

NGC 3505 is perhaps a re-observation of NGC 3508 (which see). Even though John Herschel's position is over 3/4 deg off in Dec, his description fits very well, including the "star 14 near." John Herschel found it during his stay at the Cape. The large position error is bothersome, but there is nothing else within several degrees that matches the description.

I checked the sweep and found that John Herschel's nebula was directly preceded by the star HD 95234 (the offsets are 3m 26s in RA and 4arcmin 50arcsec in Dec). These give a position for the nebula almost exactly that of NGC 3508, so given the matching description "pF, R, S, glbM, has * 14 v near", the identification is secure. I have still not yet been able to reproduce John Herschel's reduction, so do not know the source of his error. Nevertheless, I'm confident that NGC 3505 is indeed identical to NGC 3508, so have removed the colons in the position table.

Note, too, that the galaxy is also IC 2622 (which see) found by Lewis Swift.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

Harold Corwin

NGC 3508 = IC 2622 (which see) and is probably also = NGC 3505 (also which see). William Herschel called this "small" while his son saw it as "vL" -- William Herschel is closer to the truth. Both positions are good, so there is no doubt that both men were looking at the same object.

Similarly, Swift's note "... looks like a D *" in his description makes it clear that he, too, was looking at the same galaxy. In his case, however, the position is off by a few arcminutes to the northeast.

As noted above, re-reducing John Herschel's observation of NGC 3505 (which see) definitively shows that it is identical to NGC 3508. His description of the galaxy in that observation also removes the size discrepancy.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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