This galaxy is an asymmetric spiral with two arms of different shapes and brightness.

John Herschel discovered NGC 1616 = h2650 on 24 Oct 1835 and logged "pF, S, psbM." His position from 3 observations is accurate.

300/350mm - 14" (4/7/16 - Coonabarabran, 178x): fairly faint or moderately bright, elongated 3:2 SSW-NNE, brighter core, stellar nucleus, ~48"x32". A mag 11 star is 4.4' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb