Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 497 = St XII-14 = Sw. V-13 on 6 Nov 1882 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory. His position is accurate. Lewis Swift found the galaxy again on 31 Oct 1886 and reported it in his 5th discovery list. Frank Muller equated the two discoveries in an Sidereal Messenger article (Feb 1887) listing nebulae from Swift's 5th catalogue that had been discovered previously.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/27/92): faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, weak concentration. A mag 13 star is 2.2' SE of center. Located northwest of the core of AGC 194.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb