Stephane Javelle discovered IC 497 = J. 1-153 on 2 Mar 1892 with the 30-inch refractor at the Nice Observatory.

600/800mm - 24" (3/22/14): at 375x appeared faint to fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 N-S, 0.4'x0.2', weak concentration. A 12" double (mag 12.5-13 stars) lies 1' N and a mag 14 star is just off the NNW side [27" from center]. Brightest in the KTG 20 triplet.

UGC 4257 = KTG 20C lies 2' SE and appeared as an extremely faint, thin edge-on 6:1 SW-NE, 0.6'x0.1', very low even surface brightness. A mag 15.5 star is just off the west edge. CGCG 118-068 = KTG 20B, just 1.0' S, was extremely faint to very faint (slightly higher surface brightness than UGC 4257), round, just 10" diameter. A mag 13 star is 33" SE of center.

24" (1/25/14): at 375x appeared fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 N-S, 24"x12", bright core. A 12" pair of mag 12.5-13 stars lies 1' N and a mag 14 star is 27" NW of center. This galaxy is the brightest member of the KTG 20 triplet with UGC 4257 2' SSE and CGCG 118-68 3' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb