Forms a pair with MCG -01-01-012 = PGC 73143 3.9' S. The companion appeared faint, fairly small, very elongated 3:1 WSW-ENE. A mag 14 star is 0.4' N of center and somewhat hides the galaxy. Many sources misidentify this galaxy as IC 1524.

Truman Safford discovered IC 1524 = Sf 87 on 23 Sep 1867. His published discovery list in 1887 is missing his description and there is nothing at his position. But 20 seconds of RA west and 1.6' north is MCG -01-01-011 = PGC 73151, the brighter of a north-south pair of galaxies. Lewis Swift independently found IC 1524 on 5 Nov 1891 and recorded Sw. X-52 (later IC 1490) as "eF; pS; R; vF * close N; 6 pB = Mag stars p[receding]." There is nothing near Swift's position, but Harold Corwin found that Swift made an error of 30 minutes of time (too small) in recording his RA. Once corrected, his RA is just 9 seconds too small and the dec matches perfectly, as well as his description of the nearby stars. So, IC 1524 = IC 1490. MCG, PGC, HyperLeda, WikiSky, etc. misidentify MCG -01-01-012, the fainter southern galaxy,, as IC 1524. Jermain Porter measured an accurate micrometric position in 1908 using the 16-inch Clark refractor at the Cincinnati Observatory, correctly fingering the northern galaxy.

600/800mm - 24" (1/1/16): moderately bright and large, oval 5:3 WSW-ENE, 50"x30", faint elongated halo. Contains a fairly bright, rounder core with either a stellar nucleus or a star superimposed near the center. A mag 14 star is 40" N of center. [Note: The DSS shows a faint star close following the core].

Notes by Steve Gottlieb