Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6511 = Sw. I-83 on 9 Oct 1884 and recorded "F; pL; BM; 2 nearest of 3 st in a curve point to it." His position is 19 seconds of RA east of UGC 11051 but his description applies to three stars to the south. Swift probably found this galaxy again on 30 May 1886, entered it in his 4th list as #60 (later NGC 6510). His position in list IV was 21 seconds of RA too far west. So, NGC 6510 is likely NGC 6511. Bigourdan measured an accurate RA on 6 Oct 1890 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes).

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/27/92): at 140x appears faint, small, slightly elongated, broad mild concentration with no well-defined nucleus, overall diffuse. Located between mag 8.8 SAO 17685 10.8' SE and mag 8.0 SAO 17673 15.5' NNW.

17.5" (6/11/88): faint, small, slightly elongated, slightly brighter core, diffuse.

600/800mm - 24" (7/21/17): at 375x and 500x; fairly faint, fairly small, irregular shape and changes shape/orientation with averted, slightly brighter core, ~30" diameter. A mag 14 star is 2.6' W. The spiral arm on the east side was not seen with confidence.

LEDA 214647, a 17th magnitude galaxy, lies 2' W and 0.6' E of the mag 14 star. This extremely challenging galaxy popped 3 times in the same position, so the sighting was fairly confident.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb