Truman Safford discovered IC 34 = Sf. 97 = Sw. IX-1 on 22 Oct 1867 with the 18.5" refractor at the Dearborn Observatory. The discovery list was not published until 1887 and Lewis Swift found the galaxy again on 18 Sep 1889 and reported it as new in his 9th list. Both Safford's and Swift's position are good and both are credited in the IC.

600/800mm - 24" (9/1/16): at 200x; fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 5:2 NNW-SSE, 1.5'x0.6', bright core. A mag 15 star is 1.4' S of center, just off the south end. Forms a pair with UGC 353 7.7' S.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb