Gaspare Ferrari discovered NGC 50 = Nova #13 = Sw. V-1 on 8 Jan 1866 while searching for Biela's Comet. He was using the 9.5-inch Merz equatorial at the College Romain as an assistant to Father Angelo Secchi (see AN 1571). His position matches MCG -01-01-058 = PGC 983. Lewis Swift found this galaxy again on 21 Oct 1886 and reported it in his 5th discovery list. Swift's position was 12 seconds of RA too large and 25" too far south. Frank Muller noted the equivalence with GC 5092 (later NGC 50) in a Sidereal Messenger article (Feb 1887) listing nebulae from Swift's 5th catalogue that had been discovered previously (acknowledged by Swift in the errata to his 6th list). Only two out of the 14 objects found by Ferrari (Dreyer attributed his discoveries to Secchi, the observatory director) can be identified with certainty!

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/20/88): fairly bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE. Rises to a small, very bright core. Brightest in a group with MCG -01-01-057 3' NNW (logged as "faint, very small, round") and NGC 47 11' NNW.

600/800mm - 24" (11/7/18): at 375x; fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 4:3 NNW-SSE, strong concentration with a very bright core that increases to a quasi-stellar nucleus. Flanked by a mag 12.9 star 1.8' S and a mag 13.7 star 1.7' NW.

MCG -01-01-057, located 3' NNW, was fairly faint, small, elongated 2:1 SSW-NNE, 21"x14".

MCG -01-01-056, located 4' NNW, was extremely faint and small, 12" diameter. Only occasionally visible.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb