William Herschel discovered NGC 5640 = H III-949 on 20 Dec 1797 (sweep 1074) and noted "eF, S, lE near the parallel [in RA]." Dreyer mentions in the collected papers of WH that Bigourdan twice failed to find this object, but the RA may be nearly 2.0 tmin following the NGC position using a different reference star.

Corwin suggests NGC 5640 = CGCG 353-035. This galaxy is 1.1 tmin east and 3' north of the NGC position though at this declination the difference in RA is negligible. Using the position of NGC 5712 as a reference (the next object in the sweep), the position for III-949 is just 30 tsec west of CGCG 353-035, so this seems likely. Another possibility is that NGC 5640 = CGCG 353-034 (same declination) which is visually brighter and elongated roughly east-west, but further off in RA. See Corwin's notes for more on the story.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/16/01): extremely faint, very small, round, 20", low even surface brightness. Two mag 15 stars are 1' SE and 2' SSE. An equilateral triangle of mag 10 stars with sides 3' in length is at the east edge of the 220x field. CGCG 353-034 lies 7' W and appeared very faint, small, round, brighter core. It was slightly brighter than NGC 5640 = CGCG 353-035!

17.5" (6/23/01): extremely faint, very small, round, 15". Requires averted vision to glimpse and no details visible. A trio of mag 10-11 stars is at the east edge of the 220x field (22'). This galaxy seems very faint to be picked up by William Herschel while sweeping.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb