U 447
07:48 to 09:00
-61° to -72°
Car, Vol
Dec, Jan - May

A PRIME PIECE of southern celestial property, lying immediately south of the False Cross and west of the Diamond Cross, is shown on this map. The area features a host of obscure galaxies (only one of which made it into the New General Catalogue, NGC 2601), the “non-existant” open cluster NGC 2609, and a dim planetary PK276-18.01 .

FEATURED OBJECTS: NGC 2601, NGC 2609.

NGC 2601
RA 08:25:30
Dec -68° 07.1'
Galaxy

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "F, R, gbM, 30 arcseconds."

NGC 2609
ESO124-SC017
RA 08:29:34
Dec -61° 06.6'
Open cluster

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "a cluster with a double star in it." On a second occassion he called it "a double star, chief of a cluster 8th class of scattered stars, 6' diameter, not very rich or compressed."

The RNGC notes that this is a nonexistent object. Their coded description reads NOCL S.