Lewis Swift discovered IC 5011 = Sw. XI-193 on 25 Jul 1897 and recorded "pB, vS, eE". There is nothing at his position but 1.3 minutes of RA east is ESO 400-029 and his description clearly applies. He found the galaxy again a month later (29 Aug 1897) and reported "eeS; eE in meridian [N-S]; curious object." This time his RA was only 8 seconds too small. So, IC 5011 = IC 5013. See Harold Corwin's and Malcolm Thomson's remarks for more.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/6/97): fairly bright, moderately large, very elongated 3:1 SSW-NNE, 2.0'x0.7'. Sharp concentration and dominated by a striking bright core with much fainter extensions. Located 10' N of a mag 7.5 star (SAO 212153). A companion (ESO 400-030) at the south edge was not seen, probably due to the low elevation.

17.5" (8/3/94): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 2:1 SSW-NNE. Sharply concentrated with a very bright core that appears elongated at 225x or double at moments. The much fainter halo gradually fades into the background. A mag 7.5 star is 10' S near the edge of the field.

600/800mm - 24" (9/30/16): at 282x; fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 5:2 SSW-NNE, 1.8'x0.7'. Sharply concentrated with three distinct zones: a small high surface brightness core, a fairly low surface brightness halo, a small high surface brightness core and a very small, intensely bright nucleus. Mag 7.8 HD 194727 is 10' S.

IC 5011 forms an interacting contact pair with ESO 400-030 at the southeast edge of the halo [1.0' SSE from center]. The companion appeared as a very faint, fairly small glow held nearly continuously with averted and concentration. Seems to have a small brighter core and an elongated halo ~18"x12".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb