Lewis Swift discovered NGC 1081 = Sw. V-41 on 21 Oct 1886 with the 16" refractor at the Warner Observatory. His position is 5 tsec of RA west of MCG -03-08-010 = PGC 10411 (same offset as NGC 1083).

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/26/94): faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 SSW-NNE, 1.2'x0.5', uniform surface brightness. Located 10' SSW of mag 8.2 SAO 148586 at the edge of the 220x field. A wide pair of mag 11/12 stars at 1.1' separation is 5' E and a mag 14.5 star is 2' NE. The mag 8 star to the north is surrounded by a halo of 7 faint mag 14 stars! First of three with NGC 1083 16' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb