Lewis Swift found IC 1537 = Sw. XI-2 on 23 Sep 1897 and reported "eeeF; vL; eE; close f NGC 55; f of 2 [with NGC 55]." He included a long note at the end of his discovery list: "This with its associated companion is a remarkable nebula. I am undecided as to whether it is all one, or consisting of two, the preceding half very very bright, very larg, exceedingly elongated as Sir John Herschel describes it, and the following half exceedingly exceedingly faint, very large, exceedingly elongated, partly overlapping the other. If single it is curved, if double are inclined to each other. I am included to think they are two distinct nebulae, one reason being that the brighter ends sharply, which would be improbably if the brighter merged into the fainter. The brighter was discovered by Dunlop, but he could not have seen the fainter. As Sir John Herschel does not mention with a sign as being a remarkable object, lends plausibility to the idea that it was not seen even by him."

But Dunlop's size estimate of 25' includes the faint eastern portion and John Herschel's sketch of NGC 55 clearly shows the fainter eastern section! Corwin's position is centered on the brightest portion of the eastern half.

200/250mm - 8" (9/25/81): very large, very elongated, brighter to the west, very faint eastern section.

300/350mm - 13.1" (11/5/83): the very faint eastern portion is near detached from the bright WNW section.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/1/86): the eastern portion appears tilted at a slight angle to the main western portion.

600/800mm - 30" (11/4/10 - Coonabarabran): IC 1537 is the low surface brightness eastern portion of NGC 55. The following notes only refer to this portion of the galaxy: Continuing further ESE (from the central section), the surface brightness drops significantly very quickly and a large, elongated dark wedge appears to take a bite out of the galaxy. Just as the galaxy begins to brighten again towards the ESE end, there is another bright round knot and a second very small piece just detached to the ENE. At the ESE tip the galaxy brightens a bit more and has an irregular, patchy appearance with a couple of brighter stars superimposed.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb