Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6286 = Sw. I-45, along with NGC 6290 and 6291, on 13 Aug 1885 and recorded "eF; pS; R." His position was just 5 seconds of time too small. He missed nearby NGC 6285 on this observation, but discovered it on a later observation.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/18/88): fairly faint, fairly small, very elongated 3:1 SW-NE, bright core. Form a close pair with NGC 6285 1.5' NW.

600/800mm - 24" (7/2/19): at 282x; moderately bright and large, very attractive edge-on 5:1 SW-NE with a bright core. UGC 10641, located 4.5' SW, is an extremely low surface brightness superthin. It only "popped" a few times but confirmed and no more than 15"x6" E-W.

24" (7/20/17): at 322x; moderately bright and large, edge-on 5:1 SW-NE, ~1.2'x0.25', contains a bright bulging core. Slightly brighter of an interacting pair (Arp 293) with NGC 6285 1.5' NW. UGC 10641, an extremely low surface brightness superthin 4.4' SW, was just glimpsed and only the core region, ~15"x5", extending E-W was seen with confidence. Situated 0.4' NW of a mag 13.7 star.

24" (6/28/16): NGC 6286 is the slightly brighter of an interacting pair (Arp 293) with NGC 6285 1.5' NW. At 375x it appeared moderately bright and large, edge-on 5:1 SW-NE, 1.2'x0.25', well concentrated with a bright core, the extensions taper at the ends. UGC 10641, an extremely low surface brightness edge-on, lies 4.5' SW. It appeared extremely faint and slender 8:1 E-W, ~40"x5". A mag 13.7 star is 0.4' SW of center. Based on the DSS image and low magnitude (mag 16.2-16.5B) I was surprised to pick up this superthin with certainty. The SQM-L reading at the time was over 21.8.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/15/12): fairly bright, fairly large, very elongated 7:2 SW-NE, ~1.5'x0.4', well concentrated with a slightly bulging core and thin extensions. The outer loop on the southeast side was not seen. Brighter member of an interacting system (Arp 293) with NGC 6285 just 1.5' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb