William Herschel discovered NGC 2619 = H II-319 = h514 on 12 Mar 1785 (sweep 385) and noted "F, S, bM, r." John Herschel logged it on 26 Mar 1827 (sweep 57} as "pB; S; R: bM." A total of 26 observations were made with Lord Rosse's 72"!

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/18/85): faint version of NGC 2608, slightly elongated SW-NE, weak concentration, fairly even surface brightness.

600/800mm - 24" (2/16/15): moderately bright and large, oval ~3:2 SW-NE. Sharply concentrated with a bright, elongated oval core 0.5'x0.3', embedded in a low surface brightness halo ~1.2'x0.7'.

PGC 24340, the brightest cD galaxy in AGC 690, lies 24' NE. At 225x it appeared very faint, very small, round, 10" diameter, low even surface brightness. Once identified, I could just hold it continuously with averted and concentration. With a redshift of z = .079, this galaxy has a light-travel time of 1.05 billion years!

Notes by Steve Gottlieb