Williamina Fleming discovered IC 1297 in 1894 on a photograph of stellar spectra taken at Harvard College Observatory's Arequipa station in Peru. Pickering announced the discovery in AN 3227. Robert Innes independently found it on 30 Oct 1909 and reported it as "a planetary nebula looking like a double star out of focus, 9.3 mag." Diameter 8"x6", longer axis is in 270°-90°."

A star (HD 180206) is also plotted at this position on the Uranometria 2000 Atlas because the CoD and CPD catalogue included the central star (RU CrA) as an entry.

300/350mm - 13.1" (8/8/86): bright, small, 10"-15" diameter, slight bluish-green color. Very pretty sight at 166x and 214x, estimate V = 11.5-12.0.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb