E.E. Barnard discovered IC 1803, along with IC 1802 and 1804, on 29 Oct 1888 with the 12-inch refractor at Lick Observatory. His notebook sketch clearly identifies the trio, with IC 1803 = MCG +04-06-058 = PGC 9507, although his computed position (sent directly to Dreyer) is 32 seconds of time too small and 2.5' too far north (similar offset as IC 1802). He noted "the p[receding] of 2 [with IC 1804], occasionally a star like point seen in b [IC 1803]."

His poor position for IC 1803, though, falls closer to this galaxy and PGC, RC3 and HyperLeda (as well as secondary sources such as Uranometria 2000.0 Sky Atlas and Megastar) misidentify IC 1802 as IC 1803.

600/800mm - 24" (1/1/16): at 375x; faint, very small, round, 15" diameter. Fainter of a pair with IC 1804 1.3' SE. The pair points to a mag 10.5 star situated 2.4' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb