Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6111 = Sw. IX-57 on 31 May 1887 and recorded "vF; pS; lE; D * nr south points to it." The NGC position, based on personal correspondence from Swift to Dreyer, is in error. His published position in his 9th discovery list is nearly a degree further north and corresponds with CGCG 320-014 = PGC 57579. His comment "D[ouble] * nr south points to it" clinches this identification, as a faint double star 3' south (mag 13/14.5 at 18") is collinear with the galaxy. Dreyer published a correction to Swift's position in the IC I Notes section. Bigourdan's "corrected" position from 1 May 1897 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes) is wrong and corresponds with a star.

MCG and CGCG fail to label CGCG 320-014 as NGC 6111 and the first edition of the Uranometria 2000 Atlas misplots NGC 6111. RNGC misidentifies IC 1210 (10' N of Swift's original position) as NGC 6111. Coincidentally, Swift discovered IC 1210 and placed it correctly in his 9th list. The identification errors were covered in Malcolm Thomson's unpublished "Catalogue Corrections", my RNGC Corrections #5 list and Harold Corwin's identification notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/24/95): faint, very small, round, 20" diameter, even surface brightness. Located 4.5' NW of a mag 9.5 star. Collinear with a faint double star 3' S (13/14.5 at 18").

600/800mm - 24" (6/30/19): at 375x; moderately bright, fairly small, round, ~30" diameter, fairly high surface brightness. This is a double (merged) system with a double nuclei and occasionally a faint "knot" was visible on the E or SE edge (directly opposite MCG +11-20-006). Sometimes it sharpened to a small compact glow ~6" diameter. The two nuclei are separated by a mere 9".

Forms a close pair with MCG +11-20-006, just 1.2' WNW. The companion appeared faint, fairly small, round, 20" diameter, diffuse with a very low even surface brightness.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb