La Caille's galaxy
We have Barnard's galaxy NGC 6822.
We have Bode's galaxy, M81.
I think that M83 should be called La Caille's galaxy, not the Southern Pinwheel galaxy because he found it on 23 Feb 1752 with a 0.5" aperture refractor from Cape Town. It is the only galaxy in his list of 42 objects.
La Caille (I 6 in his list) described it as a "small, shapeless (or formless)" nebula. It was one of the first galaxies to be discovered. (After the Milky Way, LMC, SMC, M31, M33 and M32)
William Herschel saw M83 on 15 Mar 1787. He described it as very bright with a bright resolvable nucleus in the middle and faint branches about 5' or 6' long.
On 5 Sep 1826 James Dunlop saw "a very beautiful round nebula, with an exceedingly bright well-defined disk or nucleus, about 7 or 8 arc-seconds diameter, surrounded by a luminous atmosphere or chevelure, about 6' diameter. The nebulous matter is rather a little brighter towards the edge of the planetary disk, but very slightly so. I can see several extremely minute points or stars in the chevelure, but I do not consider them as indications of its being resolvable, although I have no doubt it is composed of stars."
Attached is my 2 minute Seestar image.
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