Quote:
Originally Posted by Lismore Bloke
NGC 1269 – NGC 1291 ERIDANUS
RA 03 36 45.22 DEC -36 15 28.2
CLASS SBa(S)
SIZE 89”x67”
MAG 14.2 12mm Nagler (125X)
Very small, almost stellar core with a suggestion of a oval shaped fainter outer envelope in averted vision. The bright centre revealed this one, normally a magnitude this faint would give me problems. When looking for galaxies I always scan around the FOV, looking for other objects, but also giving averted vision a chance to pick up something that direct vision did not reveal. Now you see it, now you don’t! Concentrated cores and ellipticals are easier to spot than diffuse, face-on spirals. I’m not sure how this one object had two NGC classifications.
|
1269 discovered by John Herschel in 1836 with a 18.7" reflector
1291 discovered by James Dunlop in 1826 with a 9" reflector
There is a slight difference in the details for them, so they probably were not immediately recognised as the same.
I was reading "
Early Australian Optical and Radio Observations of Centaurus A" by glenc and others. It has some comments about Dunlop's measurements (his observing condiions were not ideal), so it is quite likely that the coords listed for 1291 are a modern revision.