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Re: (IAAC) Obj: NGC 6543 - Inst: 30" f4 dob



> From: Mark Birkmann <deepsky@ibm.net>
> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 02:59:08 -0500 (EST)
> Subject: (IAAC) Obj: NGC 6543 - Inst: 30" f4 dob
...
> projection.  Of interest was a dim, diffuse, hazy patch of nebulousity about 60 
> seconds west of ngc 6543.  The nebulousity was about twice the diameter of the 
> planetary.  It was near the apex of a triangle of dim stars and about two thirds 
> of the way to the nearest bright field star to the west of ngc 6543.  This 
> object is not plotted in Sky Atlas 2000.  Can anyone tell me what this object 
> is?  I have observed ngc 6543 many times over the years and never noticed any 
> other nebulousity in the field.  

Mark and others -

I don't know if anyone else has replied on this yet (I'm only receiving
the digest version of the netastrocatalog messages), but this object is
pretty definitely IC 4677.  This was discovered by E. E. Barnard with
the Yerkes 40-inch refractor on April 24, 1900.  IC 4677 has in the
past been incorrectly considered a galaxy.  This is noted in the NED
database.  Leos Ondra (ondra@physics.muni.cz) was recently (this past
June) able to locate Barnard's original observations, confirming the
identification of this.  The original observations are available at the
Yerkes Observatory Library, Barnard's observing book #24, pages 140-144.
Steve Gottlieb (sgottlieb@telis.org) has also recently observed this
object.  The supposition is that this is actually part of an outer shell
of NGC 6543.

- Brent