Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6317 = Sw. I-55 on 2 Jun 1883 and recorded "eeF; S; R; F * nr; sp of 2 [with NGC 6319]." His position is 14 seconds of RA too large and the faint star is ~50" north. This was one of his first discoveries at Warner Observatory, made while still testing and adjusting the telescope. The discovery date for NGC 6319 was nearly two years later, so the comment "south-preceding of 2" was apparently added when his table was prepared. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 7 Sep 1888, which Dreyer repeated in the IC 2 Notes. MCG and UGC (notes section) fail to label this galaxy as NGC 6317.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/9/88): extremely faint, small, oval ~E-W, low even surface brightness. A mag 15 star is off the north side 51" from center. Pair with NGC 6319 6.8' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb