Edward Swift, Lewis' 20 year-old son, discovered IC 1365 = Sw. X-48 = Spitaler 26 on 28 Sep 1891 while searching for Comet Tempel-Swift. Rudolph Spitaler independently found the galaxy just two days later at Vienna and noted there appeared to be a second feeble nebula preceding by a few seconds. The SDSS reveals several very faint neighbors within the halo (Spitaler's nebula is IC 1365 NED02).

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/8/02): faint, fairly small, slightly elongated, 0.8'x0.6'. Smooth, fairly low surface brightness.

17.5" (5/10/91): very faint, extremely small, round, almost stellar but there is a faint extension to the west of the core. IC 1364 lies 15' NW and NGC 7046 is 22' NE.

600/800mm - 24" (10/6/18): at 375x; fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated, 0.5'x0.4', broad concentration, slightly brighter core. An extremely compact companion (IC 1365 NED02) is at the edge of the halo on the west side. It appeared very faint, round, ~6" diameter. The main glow forms an isosceles triangle with a mag 12 star 1.7' E and a mag 12.4 star 1.7' SSW.

LEDA 1232711, situated 4' NE, appeared very faint (V = 15.2), round, only 12"-15" diameter. An extremely faint star (V = 16.4) is less than 30" E. The galaxy forms the north vertex of an equilateral triangle with two 13th mag stars 1.1' SW and 1.2' S.

24" (9/16/17): at 375x; the main component of this multiple system (IC 1365 NED01) appeared faint, small, slightly elongated ~E-W, 0.4'x0.3', small brighter nucleus. Just at or off the west end [21" between centers] is a faint, extremely small glow (IC 1365 NED02), ~6" diameter. A third component at the east end of the halo was difficult to confirm. The combined glow of the 2 or 3 components extends 40" WSW-ENE.

900/1200mm - 48" (10/27/19): this remarkable, merging galaxy contains 4 distinct nuclei in a nearly 60"x30" glow oriented WSW-ENE. The central two nuclei are separated by only 7" N-S, but were resolved cleanly at 976x. The fainter southern nuclei was faint, very small, round, ~10" diameter, while the northern core was nearly moderately bright and ~15" diameter. The outer nuclei were both 20" from the center; the western one (catalogued as LEDA 3938837) was moderately bright, fairly small, round, ~15" diameter and the eastern one very faint, very small, round, 10" diameter.

Additional group members are nearby. LEDA 1229977, 2.2' SW, appeared moderately bright, elongated 2:1 WSW-ENE, ~15"x8", brighter core. A mag 12.5 star is 1' E. LEDA 1230860, 2' W, was fairly faint, very small bright core, thin edge-on with very faint extensions, ~18"x5". A mag 13 star is 1.3' SW. LEDA 1232711, 4' NNE, was fairly bright, round, bright core, ~20" diameter. A mag 16.3 star is 30" E. This galaxy forms the northern vertex of an isosceles triangle with two mag 13 stars 1' SW and 1' S. IC 1370, also a multiple system, lies 30' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb