sponsored by psychohistorian.org
Type: stars (two)
Mag: B=?, V=?
Size: ?
PA: ?
NGC 5856 = ADS 9505 = SAO 101379 is a double star. WH described the object this way: "A star 7.6m enveloped in extensive milky nebulosity. Another star 7m is perfectly free from such appearance." JH on the other hand, noted "A star of fully 6m, with a supposed nebulous appearance about it, but of whose reality I cannot satisfy myself, as it `blinks' with the star behind the wire." D'Arrest made three observations of the star, but only suspected the nebulosity twice. Finally, Bigourdan saw no nebulosity around the star on two different nights.
It is hard to reconcile WH's observation with a close double star. But there is certainly no nebulosity around the star now. The spectrum of the brighter component is that of a normal A2 V star with no emission noted. So, N5856 goes into the table as just a close double star.
Synonyms: H IV-071
Discovered in 1791 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a star 7-6m enveloped in extensive milky nebulosity. Another star 7m is perfectly free from such appearance."
Both Herschels and d'Arrest described this object, with some uncertainty, as a nebulous sixth-mag star. Bigourdan, however, reports no nebulosity about the star.
The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a nonexistent object. Their coded description reads NF S.
Lacaille's catalogue
The Messier objects
Dunlop's catalogue
The Bennett objects
The Caldwell list
Named DSOs
DOCdb is still in beta-release.
Known issues, feature requests, and updates on bug fixes, are here:
Found a bug? Have a comment or suggestion to improve DOCdb? Please let us know!
DOCdb is a free online resource that exists to promote deep sky observing.
You could help by sharing your observations, writing an article, digitizing and proof-reading historical material, and more.
Everything on DOCdb.net is © 2004-2010 by Auke Slotegraaf, unless stated otherwise or if you can prove you have divine permission to use it. Before using material published here, please consult the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. Some material on DOCdb is copyright the individual authors. If in doubt, don't reproduce. And that goes for having children, too. Please note that the recommended browser for DOCdb is Firefox 3.x. You may also get good results with K-Meleon. Good luck if you're using IE. A successful experience with other browsers, including Opera and Safari, may vary.