Lewis Swift discovered IC 902 = Sw. VII-32 on 8 Apr 1888 and recorded "eeF; S; vE; v diff; nearly bet. 2 stars." His position is off the southwest side of the galaxy and his desciption fits.

600/800mm - 24" (6/30/19): at 282x; fairly faint, moderately large, edge-on nearly 5:1 NNW-SSE, 1.4'x0.3', small bright core. A mag 10.5 star lies 2' NW and a mag 12.5 star is 1.6' S; the galaxy is parallel to the line connecting these stars.

24" (6/3/19): at 322x; nearly moderately bright, very nice edge-on 5:1 NNW-SSE, 1.25'x0.25', very small brighter core. The galaxy is flanked by a mag 10.5 star 2' NW and a mag 12.6 star 1.6' S of center. Located 2° WNW of mag 1.9 Alkaid, very close to the CVn border.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb