Auguste Voigt discovered NGC 6364 = Sf 49 = St X-35 = Sw. II-54 around June 1865 with the 31-inch Silver-on-glass Marseille reflector. Truman Safford found this galaxy again on 5 Sep 1866. Next, Édouard Stephan rediscovered the galaxy on 21 Jul 1879 at Marseille again and measured an accurate position. Finally, Lewis Swift found the galaxy again on 11 Sep 1885 and reported "pF; vS; R; F * close; stellar." His RA was 20 seconds too small. Voigt's discovery was never published (his log was published in 1987) and Safford's discovery list was not published until 1887, so Dreyer credited Stephan in the NGC. So, according to Steinicke, this galaxy was independently "discovered" 4 times before the NGC was published, and is tied for the most independent discoveries, along with NGC 1360 and NGC 7422.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/1/89): fairly faint, very small, round, small bright core, 0.6' diameter. A mag 13.5 star is just off the north edge 0.5' from the center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb