Truman Safford discovered IC 96 = Sf 69 on 1 Dec 1866 and recorded "pB, pS, vmb MN = 12-13m". His position is 4.6' NW of CGCG 502-035. Harold Corwin, Wolfgang Steinicke and NED identifies CGCG 502-035 = PGC 4840 as IC 96, but not PGC or HyperLEDA. But Safford's position is also 4.6' SW of IC 1672, so his object could be to either object. Malcolm Thomson and Courtney Seligman favor IC 96 = IC 1672 as Safford only found one object and IC 1672 is roughly a magnitude brighter. Also his description is a better match with IC 1672, which is not noticeably elongated and has a brighter nucleus.

600/800mm - 24" (10/1/16): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 SW-NE, ~30"x15", low even surface brightness. Forms a pair with IC 1672 5' NNE. The identification of IC 96 is very uncertain and the number may be a duplicate of IC 1672.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb