E.E. Barnard discovered IC 1296 visually on 2 Oct 1893 with the Lick 36-inch refractor. His description in AN 3200 reads "this nebula is about 1/2' diameter. Not round. A little brighter in the middle. About 14th magnitude." His position matches this faint spiral, located just 4' NW of M57.

In a paper written by James Keeler in 1899 ("The Ring Nebula in Lyra"), he noted "Barnards small nebula.—The negative obtained with two hours’ exposure shows that the small nebula discovered by Professor Barnard with the 36-inch refractor in 1893 is a left- handed, two-branched spiral. The extreme diameter on the photograph is about 30."

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/5/86): extremely faint, small, round, very low surface brightness. This difficult galaxy is situated just 4' NW of M57! Located along the north side of a small rhombus of mag 13-14 stars with sides of 1.5'. IC 1296 is just 30" ESE of a mag 14 star.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/1/11): at 375x this low surface brightness galaxy near M57 was visible with direct vision as a faint, fairly small, round, glow with a very small bright core and diffuse halo. At 488x it appeared fairly faint, fairly small, 40" diameter with a round, very small bright nucleus. Surprisingly, two faint, spiral arms were just visible extending from the nucleus! A brighter arm is attached at the south side and winds counterclockwise towards the southwest. It was often visible with averted vision. The fainter arm on the north side curving northeast required more effort and was only occasionally visible but confirmed. A mag 13.8 star is close preceding (26" W of center).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb