Lewis Swift discovered IC 1695 = Sw. XI-19 on 26 Nov 1897 and recorded "eF; pS; R; 10m * att p; * with distant companion sf, another np." His position is 3' too far northwest, but other nearby galaxies are much fainter. A 12th magnitude star is ~45" northwest; I assume this is the "10m * attached preceding." and another mag 12 star 3.7' south-following (with "distant companion" 1.6' to its south).

400/500mm - 18" (12/3/05): I forgot about my observation of IC 1695 two months ago and assumed it was part of the NGC 524 group. But with a redshift of z = .048 compared to .008, this galaxy lies six times further away in the heart of AGC 193 and Shk 40! At 225x it appeared faint to fairly faint, small, irregular round, slightly brighter core. The core or a stellar knot seemed offset to one side (double galaxy). A mag 12 star is less than 1' NW. This description is quite similar to the one two months back.

18" (10/8/05): The brightest member of AGC 193 and Shakhbazian 40 appeared faint, small, irregularly round. Situated just 43" SE of a mag 13 star. In moments of better seeing this galaxy appeared double with an extremely faint knot or extension to the northeast of the core of the main galaxy. The next day I checked the DSS and this observation matches the image! This distant cluster has a redshift of z = .048 which corresponds to a distance of over 700 million light years. The only other member seen was UGC 967, located 7.5' NW.

900/1200mm - 48" (11/8/15): at 488x; bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, ~40" diameter, small very bright core. A mag 15 star is embedded in the halo, just 10" NE of center. A mag 13.5 star is 40" NW.

IC 1695 is the brightest member of Shakhbazian 40, which corresponds with the central region of AGC 193. Nine additional galaxies ranging from V = 15.0 to V = 17.0 were visible in the 488x field: Shkh 40-14, 40-23, 40-29, 40-39, 40-43, 40-44, 40-56, 40-57, UGC 967.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb