Lewis Swift discovered IC 1199 = Sw. IX-55 on 28 Jun 1890. He recorded "eeF; S; E; p. DM +10°2969, 9s; ee diff. in consequence of proximity to the star. Found searching for D'Arrest Comet." E.E. Barnard also found it just a few nights later (4 Jul 1890), also while searching for the comet. He made a simple sketch showing the nearby stars and his computed position (using the bright star) is an exact match. In his logbook entry for 7 Jul, he noted "Swift in looking for d'Arrest's Comet reports finding a new nebula 9s p (on same parallel) the 9.5m star DM +10°2969 and says it is the faintest neb he has ever seen."

600/800mm - 24" (6/14/15): fairly faint, very elongated 3:1 NNW-SSE, 0.9'x0.3', slightly brighter along the major axis. Located just 2' W of mag 7.5 HD 145436, which detracts from viewing. A mag 12 star is 1' NW of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb