Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6466 = Sw. I-75 on 18 Sep 188. He recorded, "eF; vS; R; bet 2 stars which with 2 others forms a cross like cross in Cygnus. Neb placed as in Gamma Cygni." His position is 27 seconds of RA west of CGCG 278-030 = PGC 60883, though his description is a perfect match with this galaxy. Hermann Kobold measured an accurate position on 27 Oct 1897 with the 18-inch refractor at Strasbourg though the correction wasn't published until 1907.

Dorothy Carlson (in her 1940 NGC Correction paper) equated NGC 6466 with NGC 6478 (based on Mt Wilson photographs). RC 1, RC 2 and Sky Catalogue 2000 (first edition) all repeat this misidentification. RNGC and CGCG correctly identify NGC 6478. Both Harold Corwin and Malcolm Thomson (in his unpublished "Catalogue Corrections") report this error.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/22/90): faint, very small, slightly elongated, very small bright core. NGC 6478 lies 16' SSE.

600/800mm - 24" (7/15/15): fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, 0.4'x0.3', brighter stellar nucleus. Nearby are CGCG 278-028 5' NW, UGC 10984 15' SW and NGC 6478 15' SSE. CGCG 278-028 (V = 15.3) appeared faint, small, round, 15" diameter. UGC 10984 is fairly faint, moderately large, oval 4:3 NNW-SSE, ~40"x30", broad concentration with a brighter core. A mag 11.6 star is 2.8' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb