Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6419 = Sw. II-55, along with NGC 6420, on 17 Aug 1883 and recorded "eeF; eS; R; e diff. n of 2." His position is 14 seconds of RA west of UGC 10924 (distance = 1.4'). Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 6 Sep 1888 (reported in the IC 2 Notes).

Harold Corwin notes it is very possible that NGC 6423 (discovered by Swift 16 days earlier) is an earlier observation of this galaxy and NGC 6422 is an earlier observation of NGC 6420. But Guillaume Bigourdan assigned the numbers to the four brightest galaxies in the field, which are a good match with Swift's declinations (the RAs are 14 to 24 seconds too small). Bigourdan's corrected positions for all 4 galaxies (measured in Sept 1888), were published in the IC 2 Notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/11/88): very faint, very small, elongated NW-SE, bright core. Two mag 15 stars are close north (one is 43" NNW of center). In a group of 6 galaxies (WBL 644) with NGC 6423 4.5' ENE, NGC 6420 6.3' S, NGC 6422 6.2' SSE and CGCG 321-023 = PGC 60529 5.4' SW (see description under NGC 6422).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb