Harold Corwin

This really is the very faint galaxy about an arcminute south of Marth's position. He was observing with a 48-inch reflector, the second largest telescope in the world at the time, so he really could see very faint objects like this.

LEDA took NPM1G +07.0004 as NGC 4. This is brighter, yes, but it is nearly 21 arcmin away from Marth's position, and by random numbers in both RA and Dec (52 seconds of time, and 16.5 arcmin). No digit errors there.

Also, Marth's relative position from NGC 3 pins this object down. He found both on the same night in November of 1864, so the telescope was zeroed the same for both galaxies. Marth's offset from NGC 3 to NGC 4 is just 10 seconds in RA and 5 arcmin in Dec. The offsets from modern positions are 7.6 seconds in RA and 4 arcmin 20 arcsec in Dec. This is well within the errors of Marth's usual accuracy, so the identification is secure.

Also see NGC 7830, another very faint object that Marth found the same night. The total V magnitude of NGC 4 (around V = 15.5) bears on the identification of NGC 7830.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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