NGC 488

History and Accurate Positions for the NGC/IC Objects (Corwin 2004)

NGC 488. See NGC 486.

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H III-252

Discovered in 1784 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "vF, pL, iR, lbM."

Birr Castle/Lord Rosse

Observations with the 72-inch f/8.8 speculum telescope at Birr Castle noted that NGC 488 "is north of the third of a group of four stars in a line; 3 'novae' near." These three nebulae he discovered are NGC 486, 490 & NGC 492. He sketched the group, giving NGC 488 - NGC 490: Pos 30 degrees, Dist. 7.7'; NGC 490 - NGC 492: Pos 81 degrees, Dist. 9.3'.

Published comments

Supernovae

A supernova erupted in this galaxy in 1976 (15.0p)

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 11.5 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads S,R,BM,TIW,DKLNS.

Sandage, A. et al. (1975) Galaxies and the Universe

G. de Vaucouleurs ("Galaxies and the Universe", Chapter 14 - Nearby Groups of Galaxies) notes that the five brightest members of the NGC 488 Group are NGC 488, NGC 474, NGC 520, NGC 521 & NGC 470.

Sandage, A. (1961) The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies

This galaxy appears on page 15 of "The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies" by Allan Sandage (1961, Washington, DC).

Photo index

Photo Index by Jim Lucyk: Hubble Atl.of Gal. (Sandage 1961) p15, Burnhams V1 p93, Burnhams V3 p1481, Sky&Tel. 1/65 p7.

Modern observations

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "11.2M; 3' diameter; compact spiral with tightly wound arms; photo @ HAG-15."

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, using a 13.1" f/5.6, notes: ""NGC 488 Pretty bright, pretty large, much brighter in the middle and has somewhat mottled arms at 100X. There are two very faint companions to the north."

[amastro] Bill Ferris

Date: 10/04/1999 ; Loc.: Anderson Mesa, Flagstaff AZ; Weather: Clear, calm, temps in mid 30's; Scope: 10-inch, f/4.5 equatorial mount Newtonian; Eyepiece (Mag.): 18 mm SWA w/ 3x TeleVue Barlow (190x); 8.8 mm UWA (129x);

I decided to try for a different kind of fish, moving the search into Pisces. The first target was NGC 488, a bright 10th magnitude spiral galaxy. Magnitude 7.5 SAO 109832 stands a quarter degree due east. An alignment of four 10th and 11th magnitude stars runs right into NGC 488 from the Southwest. The galaxy displayed a stellar core and covered a 120" x 45" area. The nebulosity brightened considerably closer to the core region.

Ancient City Astron.Club (1980)

Listed by the Herschel Club, described as "somewhat circular, fuzzy with a bright nucleus fading outwards, fairly nice view. 8-inch, 48x."

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2009 12 16 19:27:0

Observing site: Little Tycho Observatory

Telescope: C-8

[1h 21m 48s, 5° 15m 0s] A uniform disc with a bright, Seyfert like nucleus. Lovely.