George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 5613 on 1 Mar 1851. While making an observation of NGC 5614 he noted " NGC 5614] is double [with NGC 5615], two others [NGC 5609 and 5613] faint." A diagram shows NGC 5613 2' north of NGC 5614. On 6 May 1877 Dreyer described NGC 5613 as "eF, pS, dif neb in Pos. 354°, Dist 116" (actual separation 120") and made a sketch.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/27/95): extremely faint, very small, round, requires averted vision to glimpse. Located 2.0' N of NGC 5614.

600/800mm - 24" (7/8/13): faint to fairly faint, small, round, 10" diameter, stellar nucleus. With averted vision the halo elongates the size increases to 15"x10". Located 2' N of NGC 5614 in a quartet, though its redshift implies NGC 5613 lies in the background at twice the distance.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/15/10): at 431x appeared moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, ~24"x18", very small brighter core. Located 2' NNW of NGC 5614. Slightly brighter and larger than NGC 5609 situated 4.7' SW

Notes by Steve Gottlieb