Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6045 = Sw. IV-24 on 27 Jun 1886, along with several other members of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster. He logged "eeF; vS; R; v diff; 6th of 10." and his position is 13 seconds of RA preceding UGC 10177 (a similar offset as NGC 6043). Bigourdan measured an accurate position in June 1888 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes).

300/350mm - 13.1" (5/14/83): very faint, elongated. Second of four in subgroup of AGC 2151.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/13/88): very faint, small, very elongated 4:1 WSW-ENE. Located in the core of AGC 2151 between the NGC 6040/6041/6042 trio to the west and NGC 6050 3.8' E. The companion attached at the east end was not seen.

17.5" (3/23/85): second of a faint collinear trio. Very faint though slightly brighter than NGC 6043 1.9' NW and NGC 6047 1.7' S, though the nearby stars to these two galaxies was more eye catching.

600/800mm - 24" (6/4/16): at 322x; faint to fairly faint, very elongated 7:2 WSW-ENE, 45"x 12", slightly brighter elongated core. NGC 6045B was occasionally glimpsed at or just off the east end.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/15/12): fairly faint to moderately bright, edge-on 5:1 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.2', slightly brighter core. A very small companion is attached at the east end, dangling to the south perpendicular to the major axis. It appeared faint, small, elongated 2:1 N-S, 12"x6".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb