Per Dreyer, NGC 404 (= John Herschel's GC 218, 1860 RA 01 01 39, NPD 55 01.9) is "pretty bright, extremely large, round, gradually brighter middle, southeast of β Andromedae". The position precesses to RA 01 09 26.7, Dec +35 42 59, within 0.1 arcmin of the galaxy's center, so the identification is certain. NGC 404 has a radial velocity of -50 km/sec; so it is approaching us, instead of going away from us, as practically all other galaxies are. This implies that it is too close for the expansion of the Universe to significantly affect its radial velocity, and its distance must be determined with redshift-independent methods. Those are difficult to make, because it is so close to Mirach (β Andromedae), a 2nd-magnitude red giant only 200 light years from the Sun, that the glare from the star makes it difficult to even see the galaxy with most telescopes (hence its name, Mirach's Ghost). Still, half a dozen estimates give results ranging from 8 to 11 million light years meaning it is close to our Local Group, although almost certainly too far away to be gravitationally bound to the Group (as a result, NED lists it as an "Isolated galaxy"). The best estimate of its distance is from measurements of the brightness of its red giants (stars not much more massive than the Sun, which are at the end of their lives). Given the resulting distance of about 10 million light years and an apparent size of 3.5 by 3.5 arcmin, the galaxy is about 10 thousand light years across, meaning it is a "dwarf" galaxy, more like the smallest companion of the Andromeda Galaxy than the much larger galaxies which dominate the Local Group (our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy). Most lenticular galaxies have little dust or gas, and consist almost entirely of old, faint stars (the brighter stars having died billions of years ago); but the GALEX ultraviolet image at bottom shows a 30 thousand light year wide ring of hot, bright young stars surrounding the central galaxy, probably due to a collision with another galaxy. Previous studies had revealed the existence of a large ring of hydrogen gas surrounding NGC 404, which was tentatively attributed to a collision with an even smaller galaxy the best part of a billion years ago. It now appears that the gas compressed by the gravitational shock of the encounter has led to the formation of new associations and clusters of stars, many hot and bright enough to give off considerable amounts of ultraviolet radiation. So what had been thought to be a rather ordinary galaxy has turned out to be a very interesting one.

Per Dreyer, NGC 406 (= John Herschel's GC 220, 1860 RA 01 02 40, NPD 160 37.5) is "faint, very large, round, very gradually a little brighter middle". However, the second Index Catalog notes (per Delisle Stewart) "not round; bi-nuclear with extremely extended wisps through it at 165 degrees".

Per Dreyer, NGC 411 (= John Herschel's GC 224, 1860 RA 01 03 28, NPD 162 30.7) is "extremely faint, pretty large, round, gradually very little brighter middle". The second Index Catalog adds (per Delisle Stewart) "not extremely faint, but considerably bright, small, round, stellar". The position precesses to RA 01 07 54.3, Dec -71 45 49, right on the cluster, so despite descriptions which sound like completely different objects, there is no doubt about the identification. Due to its distance, the cluster looks very small (only 1.3 arcmin across).

The second Index Catalog lists a corrected 1860 RA (per Howe) of 01 04 13

The second Index Catalog notes (per Delisle Stewart) "only 3 extremely faint stars, close together, not a nebula".

(See IC 89 for a discussion of the double identification.) Based on recessional velocity of 5445 km/sec, about 245 million light years away. Given that and apparent size of 2.0 by 1.6 arcmins, about 140 thousand light years across. Note: A Wikisky search for IC 89 shows the correct galaxy; but a search for NGC 446 shows PGC 4494, which is not an NGC/IC object.

Based on recessional velocity of 5455 km/sec, about 245 million light years away. Given that and apparent size of 1.3 by 0.2 arcmins, about 90 thousand light years across.