Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 1188 = LM 1-89 on 2 Dec 1885 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory. This is the first in a group of five galaxies (NGCs 1189, 1190, 1191 and 1192) discovered that night. Although Leavenworth only gave a rough RA for these objects, Herbert Howe measured accurate individual RA's in 1899-00 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes section). In this case, Howe's corrected RA is a good match with MCG -03-08-068 = PGC 11533. It is interesting to note that this places NGC 1188 just 8' N of NGC 1199, which is the brightest member of HCG 22. The RNGC incorrectly equates NGC 1188 with NGC 1199 and the MCG does not label MCG -03-08-068 as MCG.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/13/90): faint, small, elongated 3:1 N-S. NGC 1188 is only 8' N of NGC 1199, the brightest member of HCG 22. It is also a member of the much larger NGC 1209 Group (LGG 81), which includes NGC 1145, 1163, 1188, 1189, 1190, 1199 and IC 276.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb