Lewis Swift discovered NGC 2616 = Sw. III-39 on 9 Mar 1886 and noted "vF; S; R; * nr north-following; a more distant * in line with both." His position is 6 sec of RA east of UGC 4489 and the description applies.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/6/91): faint, very small, round. A mag 13.5 star is 0.8' NE of center.

600/800mm - 24" (2/5/13): at 375x appeared fairly faint, small, round, 25" diameter, fairly high surface brightness. A larger halo of extremely low surface brightness was not noticed. A mag 15 star is superimposed just north of center and a mag 13.5 star is off the NE side, 50" from center.

Brightest of 8 in a group (WBL 188) with IC 515 3.1' SSW, IC 516 4.4' ESE and CGCG 004-072 6.5' SE. The four galaxies, with NGC 2616 at the NE vertex, form a near parallelogram. In addition, CGCG 004-071 lies 6' NNE, IC 514 12' SSW, CGCG 004-065 14.5' SSW and IC 517 17' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb