sponsored by psychohistorian.org
Type: star (multiple)
Mag: B=?, V=?
Size: ?
PA: ?
IC 1740 may be the double star at 01 49 21.0, -30 10 10 or it may be the double at 01 46 35.4, -30 20 03. The first is closer to Swift's position, but the second is a pair of nearly equally bright stars. That would fit Swift's description considerably better.
Swift makes a great deal of this object (and a near twin, IC 1589, which see) as a close pair of nebulous stars, so Lauberts's suggestion that this one may be NGC 749 is certainly not correct (N749 has no companion, star or galaxy). Swift claims to have seen the object several times at different powers, but given that there is nothing at his position, we can't say for sure just what he did see. I'm leaning toward the second pair noted above, but we may never know for sure.
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.