William Herschel discovered NGC 5113 = H III-808 on 24 Apr 1789 (sweep 926) and recorded "cF, S, E." There is nothing at his position, but 30 sec of time preceding and 2' north is UGC 8393 and his comment "elongated" is appropriate. He probably found this galaxy again on 17 Mar 1790 (sweep 947) and recorded II-826 as "F, S, E." His position on sweep 947 was about 70 sec of RA following UGC 8393 and both JH and WH catalogued this galaxy a second time as II-826 = GC 3509 = NGC 5109.

Dreyer comments in his notes to WH's third catalogue that "[III-808] is no doubt identical with II 826 NGC 5109], both observed once only and in different sweeps. Harold Corwin also concludes that NGC 5113 = NGC 5109.

Malcolm Thomson has a long discussion of III-808 and II-826 in his Catalogue Corrections monograph and he concludes that H II-826 = NGC 5113 = CGCG 294-034, a fainter edge-on 5' northeast of NGC 5109. CGCG and PGC (as well as secondary sources such as Megastar) identify CGCG 294-034 as NGC 5113.

400/500mm - 18" (5/30/03): extremely faint, small, very elongated 3:1 SW-NE, 0.5'x0.15. A mag 14 star is south of the SW tip. Requires averted to glimpse.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb