A giant HII complex/OB association stood out on the SW side of the halo [1.5' SSW of center] as a small knot. It appeared fairly faint, roundish, 12"-15" diameter, stellar or quasi-stellar nucleus.

Located 19' WSW of mag 6.4 Pi-1 and 23' WSW of mag 5.6 mag Pi-2 Gruis. The pair is a nice binocular double at a wide 4' separation. Pi-1 is a red giant transitioning into a carbon star and a very unequal double star (mag 6.5/10.7 at 2.8").

Joseph Lunt discovered IC 5201 visually in 1900 during a search for Brorsen's Comet. He was observing with the 18-inch refractor of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. Lunt's position was 22 seconds of RA too large and 2' too far south.

600/800mm - 25" (10/21/17 - OzSky): at 244x; moderately bright, very large, elongated 5:2 SW-NE, ~7.5'x3'. Strongly concentrated with a large elongated bar oriented SSW-NNE (over 1' in length) within a brighter core. The bar dominates a much fainter diffuse outer halo of low surface brightness. Still, there was a suggestion of spiral structure in the outer halo on the SSW and NNE ends.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb