Lewis Swift found IC 1179 = Sw. VII-71 on 3 Jun 1888 and recorded "eeeF; pS; R. 11th of 12." His position falls very close to the merged double system NGC 6050, discovered by Swift on 27 Jun 1886, and catalogued as Sw. IV-26. PGC, SIMBAD and HyperLeda assign IC 1179 to the much fainter southwest component NGC 6050B), but Corwin, Malcolm Thomson and I doubt that Swift could have resolved the pair. Additionally Swift described NGC 6050A as "eeeF" (at his limit) but NGC 6050B is much fainter and furthermore he makes no mention of the nebula being double! So, almost certainly IC 1179 is a duplicate observation of NGC 6050. In the IC, Dreyer questioned if IC 1179 was a duplicate of NGC 6054 (it's not) and this is repeated in several sources such as Carlson.

300/350mm - 13.1" (5/14/83): very faint, small, round. Fourth of 4 in a subgroup of AGC 2151.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/13/88): very faint, small, round, diffuse. This member of AGC 2151 forms a close pair with NGC 6054 1.9' ENE. Follows the trio of NGC 6047 4.0' SW, NGC 6045 3.8' W and NGC 6043 5.3' WNW. This is an interacting pair with IC 1179 20" SW (not individually resolved).

17.5" (3/23/85): faint but easily visible, small, roundish. This is a double system, but IC 1179 was not seen.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/15/12): this number is generally taken as the fainter, southwest component of the interacting and connected pair NGC 6050 in AGC 2151. It appeared as a faint, diffuse glow attached to the southwest side of the brighter component, but was not individually resolved at 375x. There was a very weak central brightening and a very faint nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb