William Herschel discovered NGC 6217 = H I-280 on 12 Dec 1797 (sweep 1071) and logged "cB, cL, E, lbM. The extent points almost to 2 np pB stars, or rather a little on the following side of them. This is one of the later galaxies he discovered while searching in the far north to finish up his third catalogue. Hermann Kobold measured a very accurate micrometric position in 1892 with the 18-inch refractor at Strasbourg Observatory

200/250mm - 8" (8/24/84): faint, fairly small, slightly elongated.

300/350mm - 13" (8/24/84): fairly bright, slightly elongated, stellar nucleus, fairly diffuse outer halo.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/22/01): fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, ~2.5'x1.5', small bright core. Contains a bright stellar nucleus. A very faint star is just off the NW edge. At the NW end a faint spiral arm is attached to the main body, winding north and then trailing back nearly halfway along the NE flank (this increases the dimensions to ~2.5'x2.0'). With concentration a dark gap is visible between the arm and the main body (bar) of the galaxy. A very short extension is strongly suggested at the SE end, bending towards the west. All of these features were sketched and later verified on the DSS.

17.5" (5/14/88): bright, fairly large, bright stellar nucleus, elongated. Irregular appearance; either darker or an indentation on one side (this is probably a gap between the spiral arms).

900/1200mm - 48" (10/22/11): at 375x, this beautiful, two-armed barred spiral spans ~2.3'x1.5' NNW-SSE. A bright central bar is well-defined, mottled and sharply concentrated with an intensely bright, very small nucleus. A mag 15 star is superimposed just SE of the nucleus. The bar contains a brighter, mottled patch at the NNW end. A long spiral arm is attached at this patch and wraps counterclockwise around the north and northwest side. A thinner second arm on the SSE side wraps around the south side towards the west.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb