George Hough discovered NGC 5511 on 10 May 1883 with the 18.5-inch Clark refractor at Dearborn Observatory while searching for d'Arrest's comet. His position is ~2.5' east of VV 299, a 1' pair of galaxies (CGCG 074-141 and -142). His description reads "small, very faint, star 10m, 10m preceding." Ignoring his typo, there is no 10th mag star preceding, though a mag 10 star is ~3.5' east-southeast. Assuming Hough found one of the pair, CGCG 074-141 is more likely based on my visual observation. CGCG doesn't label either galaxy as NGC 5511. See Harold Corwin's identification notes for more on this story.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/8/02): extremely faint, small, irregular or slightly elongated, 0.4'x0.3'. Only a single galaxy was seen (either CGCG 074-141 or -142, which form a 1' pair) in poor seeing ~3' W of a mag 10.5 star. Slightly brighter CGCG 74-136 (which may be NGC 5469) lies 10' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb