NGC 499

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

NGC 499 = IC 1686 is the brightest of a moderately compact group of galaxies in a cluster of which NGC 507 is the dominant member. It, with six others in the cluster, was found by WH. JH reobserved five of the six, but mislabeled a "nova" (NGC 483) as the first of his father's objects (d'Arrest makes the same mistake). Lord Rosse has observations on 8 different nights, and -- with the exception of NGC 483 in the first observation -- got the identifications correct. Schultz also got the correct objects, and Dreyer sorted the field out well for the NGC.

Javelle swept over the field late in 1899, finding and measuring a dozen objects in the area that he took to be previously uncatalogued. However, his accurate position and exact description of one of those "novae" points directly at NGC 499 -- in spite of the fact that he has a footnote on the object saying that "NGC 499 was also measured." He has clearly misidentified the object in the crowded field. Since he unfortunately does not publish his measurements of the NGC objects, we cannot now be sure just which galaxy he mistook for NGC 499. Dreyer did not catch Javelle's error (Javelle's absolute declination is about 1.7 arcmin off since he used the BD position, also 1.7 arcmin off, for his comparison star), so the galaxy now carries the IC, as well as the NGC, number.

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H III-158

Discovered in 1784 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "Three forming a rectangular triangle. In the legs [NGC 495 & 496] eF, vS; at the rectangle [NGC 499] vF, pL."

Published comments

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 13.0 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads E,SLEL,BM,*CLOSE P&F.

Modern observations

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, using a 13.1" f/5.6, notes: ""NGC 499 Pretty bright, pretty small, not brighter in the middle and round at 100X."

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2011 1 4 19:19:28

Observing site: Little Bennett Regional Park

Telescope: C-11

[1h 23m 12s, 33° 28m 0s] The brightest member of a galaxy cluster, seen through the star fields of Andromeda. I could only see this giant E0, the other galaxies were much too difficult to tell from faint stars, which abound in this field. About 2', brighter towards the middle. Sources on the internet list this as an S0, which seem confirmed by the WikiSky image.