Lewis Swift discovered IC 5013 = Sw. XI-194, for the second time, on 29 Aug 1897 and reported "eeS; eE in meridian [N-S]; curious object." His RA is only 8 seconds too small. His first observation was a month earlier and the discovered was listed as Sw. XI-193 (later IC 5011), but his RA was 1.3 minutes too small. His description "pB; vS; eE" clearly applies to the same galaxy. So, IC 5011 = IC 5013. Malcolm Thomson equated IC 5011 with ESO 400-029, but was not convinced that IC 5013 was equivalent or applied to the companion on the southeast side (ESO 400-030).

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 5013 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. It seemed to have a small brighter core and an elongated halo ~18"x12".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb