Lewis Swift discovered NGC 51 = Sw. II-8 on 7 Sep 1885, along with NGC 48 and 49, with the 16" refractor at the Warner Observatory. His RA was 0.5 minutes too large (similar offset as the other two). Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 13 Oct 1890 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes) and as well as Barnard (AN 4136).

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/31/86): fairly faint, fairly small, round, small bright core. A faint star is superimposed on SE edge (or a companion galaxy). Brightest and last of six in the group. Also the third of three NGC galaxies in the NGC 51 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb