Lewis Swift found NGC 6690 = Sw. V-86 = Sw. V-85 on 16 Aug 1884 and recorded "pF; L; R; bet 2 st." His position is just east of the core of UGC 11300 and the two stars are southwest and northeast. He found this galaxy on 31 Oct 1886 and reported it as new in his 5th discovery list (#85) as "vF; pS; lE; nearly bet. 2 near st." His second position was 2.5' too far northwest, although clearly it applies to the same galaxy. Dreyer combined the two Swift entries into NGC 6690.

Heinrich d'Arrest made the first discovery on 22 Aug 1863 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen and listed it as #188 in his AN 1500 table. His position (measured twice) is accurate and Dreyer catalogued this galaxy as NGC 6689, despite the very similar positions. So, NGC 6689 = NGC 6690. UGC 11300 is usually identified as NGC 6690, although by d'Arrest's prior discovery it should be labeled NGC 6689.

Herbert Howe observed NGC 6690 in 1899-00 and reported "this is given as "R" in the NGC. But it really has two faint wings stretching out north and south from the much brighter centre, making the nebula 1.5' long. At its northern end is a star of mag 12."

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/11/88): moderately bright, fairly large, very elongated NNW-SSE. A mag 14 star is just off the west side 0.6' from center. A brighter mag 13 star is east of the north tip and an extremely faint mag 15-15.5 star is involved at the NNW end.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb