John Herschel discovered NGC 5413 = h1733 on 2 Apr 1832 and recorded "pF; pS; R; pslbM; 20"; has a * 7.8m; Delta RA = 37s; Delta PD = 60" +/-." His RA is 1.1 min too large, but his reference to the nearby mag 7 star clinches the identification. Lewis Swift independently found this galaxy on 18 May 1887 and reported it as new in list VI-63. Swift's position is 8 sec of RA too large and 1' too far south. Swift later noticed the equivalence with NGC 5413 and made the correction (as well as a misprint for a nearby double star, instead of B*) in a short errata list at the end of his 8th list.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/22/01): fairly faint, fairly small, round, 0.8' diameter. The faint halo rises suddenly to a brighter 15" core and occasional faint stellar nucleus. Located 3.9' NW of mag 7.0 SAO 16234 and 53' NW of mag 3.7 Thuban.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb