Harold Corwin

NGC 5502 = NGC 5503. These were found by Edward and Lewis Swift, son and father, on 9 and 11 May 1885, respectively. Their descriptions of the galaxy are nearly the same, and the identity is clinched because both father and son carefully describe the surrounding star field (for NGC 5502, the description is "between two stars, one a wide double," while for N5503, it reads "forms with two stars a right triangle"). Neither position is very good, but that for NGC 5503 is closer to the true position. I suspect that the difference in position and description of the stars was enough to convince both of the Swifts -- and Dreyer, too -- that the observations referred to different nebulae.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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