William Herschel discovered NGC 52 = H III-183 = h11 on 18 Sep 1784 (sweep 277) and recorded "eF, S, irr E." The NGC position is 0.4 min of RA east of UGC 140 = PGC 978. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 13 Nov 1889 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes section).

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/14/87): fairly faint, small, thin edge-on 5:1 WNW-ESE, weak concentration.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb