Guillaume Bigourdan found IC 1183 = Big. 203 = J. 372a on 1 Jun 1888. Stephane Javelle picked it up again on 11 Aug 1892, as well as IC 1182. But the original discovery was made by Lewis Swift on 27 Jun 1886, along with several other members of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster. His description for Sw. IV-27 (later NGC 6054) reads "eeeF; pS; lE; f * v nr sp; 9th of 10." His position is 13 seconds west of CGCG 108-128 = PGC 57073 (similar offset as NGC 6043, 6045, 6047, 6050) and his comment "faint star very near south-preceding" applies (the star is 1' southwest). So, NGC 6054 = IC 1183. Due to Swift's poor position MCG, PGC and RNGC misidentify CGCG 108-121 as NGC 6054 and the galaxy described here is called IC 1183. See NGC 6054 for more.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/13/88): very faint, very small, slightly elongated. Located 1.0' NE of a mag 12.5 star. An extremely faint galaxy (MCG +03-41-099) is 1.5' W with IC 1182 2.1' NNW. Member of AGC 2151.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/15/12): fairly faint to moderately bright, small, oval 4:3 WSW-ENE, 20"x15". Located 1.0' NE of a mag 12.6 star with a mag 16 star 1' S. Brighter IC 1182 lies 2.1' NNW, fainter PGC 1541356 is 40" NE and MCG +03-41-099 (often identified as NGC 6054) is 1.8' W. NGC 6054 is identified as IC 1183 in most sources

Notes by Steve Gottlieb