Edward Swift, Lewis' 14 year-old son, discovered NGC 2523 = Sw. II-32 on 7 Sep 1885 with the 16" refractor at the Warner Observatory. The Swifts' position and description ("pB, pL, lE, lbM, * nr") is a good match with UGC 4271 = Arp 9. This is the brightest galaxy (of 23) that Edward discovered.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/8/91): moderately bright, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, fairly small. A center contains a bright central bar with a small bright core. A mag 11.5 is off the SW edge 1.5' from the center. Forms a pair with NGC 2523B = UGC 4271 9' W and NGC 2523C = UGC 4290 lies 20' SE.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/21/17 and 5/1/19): at 488x; bright, very large, showpiece barred spiral! Superb view with a strong bar running ~5:1 WNW-ESE, highlighted by an intensely brighter nucleus. Inner spiral arms are attached at the ends of the bar and form a gorgeous 360° inner circular ring! The region inside the ring is darker on both sides (southwest and northeast) of the bar. With averted vision a fainter outer halo extended mostly SW and NE, though I couldn't trace arm structure in the halo. A mag 11.7 star is 1.7' SW of center. Brightest in a group with NGC 2523B 9' W, UGC 4279 7' NE and NGC 2523C 19' SE.

NGC 2523B: moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 5:2 E-W, 40"x15", very faint outer extensions. A mag 14 star is at the southwest edge of the core. A mag 12.4 star is 1.2' SW. UGC 4279: extremely to very faint, thin ghostly streak 0.4'x0.1'. This is the brighter central bar and the extremely low surface brightness arms or halo was not seen. Situated 7' NE of NGC 2523 and 2.5' S of mag 8.2 SAO 6469. I needed to keep the bright star out of the field to glimpse this galaxy.

NGC 2523C: fairly bright, moderately large, very elongated 3:1 E-W, ~60"x20", well concentrated with an elongated bright core and small brighter nucleus. Located 20' SE of NGC 2523 and 10' WSW of mag 8.4 HD 68744. LEDA 213458 lies 2.8' NW. The companion (missing from Megastar) appeared fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated, brighter core, 18" diameter.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb