Andrew Cooper
Oct 7, 2023    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 80x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Faint, extending 5' x 2' northeast to southwest, no notable core, 5' east of NGC 7590 and 10' northeast of NGC 7582

Harold Corwin

IC 5308 is almost certainly NGC 7599. Swift's position is less than 2 arcmin south of NGC 7599, and his description makes his object the "f of 3" (the preceding two are, of course, NGC 7582 and NGC 7590). I think that he somehow confused the NGC entries for the nebulae in the area and, thinking that NGC 7590 was NGC 7599, added the note "f of 7599."

In any event, there is no nebula "f of 7599" that he could have seen. And given that his observation of the galaxies would have been less than fifteen degrees above his Southern California horizon -- at best! -- the remainder of his description "eeF, S, cE" would match the central part of NGC 7599 pretty well.

As far as I know, Wolfgang was the first to explicitely adopt the equality, though ESO has the note "Part of N7599?" Helwan makes IC 5308 the double star just southwest of the galaxy, but if this were true, Swift would almost certainly have noted this.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

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