E.E. Barnard found IC 1883 on on 26 Nov 1888 with the 12-inch refractor at Lick Observatory. His discovery was communicated directly to Dreyer and not announced in any of his papers. This galaxy was discovered earlier by Lewis Swift on 18 Oct 1884 and recorded in his first discovery list as I-5 (later NGC 1212) with the description "S; R; vvF. Right angled with 2 stars. In field with Algol". Swift's position is poor, 40 seconds of RA west of UGC 2560, but his description of the two stars applies to this galaxy. Barnard and Dreyer assumed this was probably a new object due to Swift's poor position. So, NGC 1212 = IC 1883, with discovery priority to Swift.

400/500mm - 18" (11/22/03): faint, small, round, 25" diameter, even surface brightness. Forms the SW vertex of an equilateral triangle with mag 8.7 SAO 38614 2.7' NE and a mag 11.7 star 2.2' E. Located just 18' ESE of Algol at the western edge of AGC 426!

600/800mm - 24" (12/20/17): at 375x; fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, 20"x15", faint stellar nucleus. Located 18' ESE of Algol and 2.7' SW of a mag 8.7 star within AGC 426. IC 290 lies 4.8' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb