John Herschel discovered NGC 1511 = h2608 on 2 Nov 1834 and described "pB; mE; vgbM; 90" l; pos 125.5?." His position and description matches ESO 055-004 = PGC 14236.

The galaxy was sketched by Joseph Turner in 1876 (unpublished plate II, figure 12 and 13) using the Great Melbourne Telescope and later by Pietro Baracchi.

600/800mm - 24" (4/4/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 200x appeared fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 3:1 NW-SE, ~2.5'x0.8'. Contains a bright, elongated core with a small very bright nucleus. Two stars mag 14-15 stars bracket the galaxy just 54" E and 1.3' W of center and just north of the center. The northeast flank of the galaxy appears slightly brighter and more sharply defined and there is an impression of a dust lane on the south side. At 260x the galaxy has a mottled appearance and is slightly warped or asymmetric at the tips. A mag 10.8 star lies 3.5' SSE and a fainter edge-on NGC 1511A is in the field 11' SSE. The companion is a fairly faint, moderately large, edge-on 7:2 WNW-ESE, 1.5'x0.4', broadly concentrated with a slightly bulging core. NGC 1511 is a member of a small group that includes NGC 1473, NGC 1511A and NGC 1511B.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb