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RA: 01h 56m 33.73s
Dec: +33° 03′ 22.2″
Con: Triangulum
Ch: MSA:123, U2:92, SA:4
Ref: SIMBAD, Corwin (2004)
Type: star (single)
Mag: B=?, V=?
Size: ?
PA: ?
NGC 733 is most likely a star. Lord Rosse found a group of five nebulae in the area of NGC 736 (the brightest) on 11 October 1850. His sketch is reasonably accurate, though it is distorted in that it exaggerates the north-south separations between the objects. His micrometric offsets from N736 also point quite accurately to the surrounding objects, including the star which I've taken as N733. The sketch confirms the relative distances in the table between N733, N736, and N740 (the distance between N733 and N736 is about half that between N736 and N740).
However, at the same position angle as the star, and just 100 arcsec further from the star which I take as N733, is a faint galaxy. Not otherwise catalogued, this is possibly the object which Lord Rosse meant to measure and sketch. Since the evidence from the sketch and the measurements point directly at the star, though, I'm currently retaining it, and not the galaxy, as N733. But I've nevertheless listed the galaxy, too, with the requisite question marks.
The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a galaxy. Their coded description reads R,BM.
Lacaille's catalogue
The Messier objects
Dunlop's catalogue
The Bennett objects
The Caldwell list
Named DSOs
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