While going over my observing notes from last Saturday night I found some likely misidentifications with IC 736 and IC 737 - these were observed while I was checking out several Hickson compact groups waiting around for Hale-Bopp to rise in the morning (Ray Cash will probably post his own observations of these groups soon).

Several catalogues (including RC3, MCG and CGCG) identify IC 736 with Hickson 59A = M+02-30-039 = CGCG 068-070 and IC 737 with Hickson 59D = M+02-30-040 = CGCG 068-072. When I took a look at this group, this immediately seemed odd as the brightest pair of galaxies are clearly Hickson 59A and Hickson 59B and I missed Hickson 59D which the modern catalogues identify as IC 737.

The IC entries are from Javelle made with the 30 inch refractor at the Nice observatory. His micrometric measurements are generally excellent and his rounded positions precessed to 1950 are as follows:

IC 736 11 45 45 +12 59.6
IC 737 11 45 53 +13 00.2

Now, compare these to the Hickson's 1950 positions for 59B and 59A, respectively and they are a dead-on match:

HCG 59B 11 45 45.6 +12 59 38.7
HCG 59A 11 45 52.9 +13 00 19.0

As this pair was also the most prominent visually in my 17.5", I'd suggest the modern catalogues are incorrect and

IC 736 = HCG 59B = M+02-30-037 = CGCG 068-068 = PGC 36853
IC 737 = HCG 59A = M+02-30-039 = CGCG 068-070 = PGC 36861

Here are my observing notes on these galaxies:

IC 736 = Hickson 59b is the fainter of a close pair and situated 1.9' ESE of IC 737 = Hickson 59a. Very faint, small, round, 20" diameter. With averted vision, the halo increases to ~30" (similar to IC 736) but the surface brightness is slightly lower.