Sir Robert Ball, an assistant on LdR's 72" telescope, discovered NGC 5601 on 27 Mar 1867. Under the listing for GC 3867 [=NGC 5598] and GC 3871 [=NGC 5603] is the comment "One or perhaps 2 novae; 2nd may be a *". Although there was no diagram or offsets in the 1880 LdR monograph, Dreyer published a good position for NGC 5601 in the GC Supplement (5770) and NGC. The second nebula that Ball suspected is probably UGC 9216. The MCG selection for NGC 5601 appears to be=NGC 5603, while its choice of=NGC 5603 is UGC 9216.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/8/02): very faint, small, very elongated 3:1 N-S, 0.5'x0.15'. Located 4.9' ESE of NGC 5598 and 4.3' SSW of NGC 5603 within a small group of galaxies.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb