Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6450 (Swift list II (#61), 1860 RA 17 41 25, NPD 71 22.3) is "very faint, very small, bright star 2 arcmin to east". The second IC notes "Not found by Howe (2 nights)".

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6451 (= GC 4335 = JH 3707 = WH VI 13, 1860 RA 17 41 41, NPD 120 10.2) is "a cluster, pretty large, pretty rich, bifid, stars from 12th magnitude".
Physical Information: Apparent size 8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6452 (= GC 5878, Marth #349, 1860 RA 17 41 57, NPD 69 05) is "most extremely faint, small".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.5 by 0.5? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6453 (= GC 4336 = JH 3708, 1860 RA 17 42 00, NPD 124 34.7) is "considerably large, irregularly round, pretty much brighter middle, mottled but not resolved".
Physical Information: Apparent size 7.6? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6454 (Swift list I (#70), 1860 RA 17 42 02, NPD 34 14.1) is "very faint, pretty small, round, a little brighter middle". The second IC lists a corrected RA (per Bigourdan) of 17 42 20.
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.0 by 0.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6455 (= GC 4337 = JH 3709, 1860 RA 17 42 38, NPD 125 20.7) is "a cluster, partially resolved (some stars seen), stars extremely small plus nebula". Probably merely an enhancement of the Milky Way background.
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.0? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6456 (Swift list V (#76), 1860 RA 17 42 44, NPD 22 20.0) is "most extremely faint, extremely small, round, very difficult, between 2 stars".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.8 by 0.6? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6457 (Swift list I (#71), 1860 RA 17 42 45, NPD 23 27.9) is "faint, very small, round, brighter middle".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.2 by 0.9? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6458 (= GC 5879, Marth #350, 1860 RA 17 43 10, NPD 69 08) is "extremely faint, very small, stellar".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.3 by 0.9? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6459 (Swift list I (#72), 1860 RA 17 43 12, NPD 34 10.0) is "extremely faint, extremely small, round, mottled but not resolved".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.8 by 0.4? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6460 (= GC 5880, Marth #351, 1860 RA 17 43 30, NPD 69 11) is "very faint, pretty large, irregularly round".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.9 by 1.1? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6461 (Swift list V (#77), 1860 RA 17 43 35, NPD 16 32.3) is "extremely faint, pretty small, round, 5 stars near".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.8 by 0.4? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6462 (Swift list I (#73), 1860 RA 17 43 44, NPD 28 01.4) is "faint, extremely small, round, a planetary nebula?"
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.4 by 0.4? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6463 (Swift list IV (#55), 1860 RA 17 43 59, NPD 22 21.3) is "most extremely faint, small, round, very difficult, 2nd of 6", the others being NGC 6456, 6470, 6471, 6472 and 6477, which as discussed in the entry for NGC 6470 are hard to accurately assign to specific NGC entries because of their close proximity and the poor quality of the original observations.
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.6 by 0.6? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6464 (Swift list I (#74), 1860 RA 17 44 13, NPD 29 01.9) is "most extremely faint, pretty small, round, south of 4 stars".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.6 by 0.6? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6465 (= GC 4338 = JH 1988, 1860 RA 17 44 17, NPD 115 21.5) is "extremely faint, small (suspected)". The second IC notes (per Howe) "Only 2 faint double stars".

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6466 (Swift list I (#75), 1860 RA 17 44 25, NPD 38 33.9) is "extremely faint, very small, round, between 2 stars".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.5 by 0.3? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6467 (= GC 5881, Marth #352, 1860 RA 17 44 27, NPD 72 25) is "very faint, very small, a little extended." The position precesses to RA 17 50 38.2, Dec +17 32 38, less than 0.5 arcmin west-northwest of the galaxy listed above (and barely outside its northwestern border), the description fits (although the galaxy is elongated, the bright central region that is all that Marth could have seen is roughly round) and there is nothing else nearby, so the identification is certain.
Physical Information: Apparent size 2.6 by 1.7? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6468 (= GC 5882, Marth #353, 1860 RA 17 44 28, NPD 72 25) is "very faint, small, round." The position, which differs from that for NGC 6467 (discovered on the same night) by only 1 second of time, precesses to RA 17 50 39.2, Dec +17 32 28, only 0.25 arcmin northwest of the center of the galaxy listed above, the description fits and there is nothing else nearby, so the identification is certain.
An Odd Duplicate Entry: It is not unusual for a galaxy 'discovered' on two separate nights to accidentally end up with two NGC entries; but it does seem strange that while Marth must have made the two observations of the object at nearly the same time (and on the same night), he did not realize that both were of the same object, since there is only one galaxy that he could possibly have seen anywhere near his position(s). One result of this is that in the database mentioned below, Marth #353 was assigned to a galaxy 20 arcmin to the south, although after I notified the author of the original database of the problem (on July 1, 2023), he immediately corrected the error.
Discovery Note: Gottlieb and Corwin note that given the nearly identical positions for NGC 6467 and 6468, although not realizing that the two observations were of the same object (an unusual error by Marth and Dreyer), it is inconceivable that Marth's two observations can represent anything but the same object.
Historical Misidentification: When I started this catalog I used a 2013 database for the bare-bones entries found here prior to 2023, and since that database misidentified NGC 6468 as the galaxy 20 arcmin to the south, this entry copied that; but as just discussed, that identification must have been incorrect, and has now been corrected. But since it may have been copied into other databases during the last decade, I have kept a revised version of the original entry immediately below, as a warning about the problem.
Physical Information: Given the duplicate entry, see NGC 6467 for anything else.

Note About Erroneous Identification: At the time I started this page I used an older NGC/IC database for all the preliminary entries. By and large, that database was reasonably accurate; but in this case, as noted in the updated entry for NGC 6848, it was incorrect. Given that error, see IC 1268 for anything else about that galaxy.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6469 (= GC 4339 = JH 3711, 1860 RA 17 44 30, NPD 112 18.4) is "a cluster, pretty rich (in Milky Way)".
Physical Information: Apparent size 8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6470 (Swift list IV (#56), 1860 RA 17 44 34, NPD 22 20.2) is "most extremely faint, very small, round, very difficult, 3rd of 6" (in Swift's list IV, he only states that #56 is the eastern of 2, and #55 (probably = NGC 6463) is the western of 2; the others were taken by Dreyer from Swift's list V).
Warning: The six galaxies involved are all fairly close together, and the assignment of NGC numbers to specific galaxies requires certain assumptions, so pending a thorough review of the matter, the identifications stated here should be taken with a grain of salt. Corwin has an excellent discussion of the matter which, pending a careful reading and comparison to images of the region, is probably correct; but a comparison of different databases shows that misidentifications of one sort or another are very common. The galaxies in question are NGC 6456, 6463, 6470, 6471, 6472 and 6477; and all the identifications of these objects here and elsewhere should be considered uncertain until this sentence is removed.
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.3 by 0.2? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6471 (Swift list V (#78), 1860 RA 17 44 34, NPD 22 21.5) is "most extremely faint, extremely small, round, star near, 4th of 6", the six being discussed in the entry for NGC 6470.
Physical Information: #1: Apparent size 1.4 by 0.3 arcmin. #2: Apparent size 0.3 by 0.3 arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6472 (Swift list V (#79), 1860 RA 17 44 34, NPD 22 18.0) is "most extremely faint, extremely small, round, very difficult, 5th of 6", the six being discussed in the entry for NGC 6470.
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.3 by 0.2? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6473 (Swift list IV (#57), 1860 RA 17 44 35, NPD 32 38.5) is "most extremely faint, small, round, southern of 2", the other being NGC 6474. The position precesses to RA 17 46 54.1, Dec +57 18 36, about 12 arcsec south of NGC 6474 (which see for images and further discussion). Unfortunately, there is nothing bright enough for Swift to have seen to the south of NGC 6474, but if he reversed the directions (a common error in visual observations) the star listed above would fit the description well, as it is only about 20 or so arcsec north of NGC 6474, and depending on the "seeing" on the night of Swift's observation, could easily have appeared exactly as he described the object.
Additional Notes: Several other stars or asterisms have been proposed for NGC 6473, but they are all considerably further away and almost certainly not Swift's IV-57; in addition, due to a modern mixup involving which of the objects in Swift's list corresponds to NGC 6473 or NGC 6474, NGC 6473 is often misidentified as the galaxy that is actually NGC 6474.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6474 (Swift list IV (#58), 1860 RA 17 44 35, NPD 32 38.3) is "extremely faint, pretty small, round, northern of 3, 3 stars near". "Northern of 3" is a misprint, as Swift's paper reads "northern of 2", the other being NGC 6473; also in Swift's paper, "3 stars near" reads "3 stars in a line near and 3 others in a line point to it; extremely diffuse". The position precesses to RA 17 46 54.0, Dec +57 18 48, about 1.7 arcmin west northwest of the galaxy listed above, but there is nothing else nearby and there are appropriate lines of stars to the southeast and northeast, so the identification is certain. (Unfortunately, due to a modern mixup concerning which of the objects in Swift's list IV corresponds to NGC 6473 or NGC 6474, this galaxy is often misidentified as NGC 6473, hence the warning in the title for this entry.)
Physical Information: Based on a recessional velocity of 8470 km/sec, a straightforward calculation indicates that NGC 6474 is about 395 million light years away. However, for objects at such distances we should take into account the expansion of the Universe during the time it took their light to reach us. Doing that shows that the galaxy was about 380 million light years away at the time the light by which we see it was emitted, about 385 million years ago (the difference between the two numbers being due to the expansion of the intervening space during the light-travel time). Given that and its apparent size of 1.1 by 0.5 arcmin, the galaxy is about 120 thousand light years across.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6475 (= GC 4340 = JH 3710, Halley, Lacaille II 14, M 7, 1860 RA 17 44 40, NPD 124 46.6) is "a cluster, very bright, pretty rich, a little compressed, stars from 7th to 12th magnitude".
Physical Information: Apparent size 75? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6476 (= GC 4341 = JH 3712, 1860 RA 17 44 55, NPD 119 05.6) is "a nebula or nebulous part of Milky Way".
Physical Information: Apparent size 20? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6477 (Swift list V (#80), 1860 RA 17 45 09, NPD 22 18.8) is "most extremely faint, extremely small, round, very difficult, star near".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.4 by 0.3? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6478 (Swift list III (#95), 1860 RA 17 45 21, NPD 38 47.2) is "pretty bright, small, very much extended, spindle".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.9 by 0.7? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6479 (Swift list I (#76), 1860 RA 17 45 34, NPD 35 47.8) is "extremely faint, pretty small, round, 3 stars to north".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.0 by 0.9? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6480 (= GC 4342 = JH 3713, 1860 RA 17 45 37, NPD 120 23.9) is "a nebula or nebulous part of Milky Way".
Physical Information: Apparent size 17? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6481 (Peters, 1860 RA 17 45 55, NPD 85 47.9) is "very small, brighter middle".

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6482 (= GC 4343 = JH 1989, 1860 RA 17 45 58, NPD 66 53.5) is "a remarkable object, very faint, small, round, very suddenly very much brighter middle and very small round nucleus".
Physical Information: Apparent size 2.1 by 1.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6483 (= GC 4344 = JH 3713, 1860 RA 17 46 01, NPD 153 38.0) is "faint, small, extended, brighter middle, between two 10th magnitude stars".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.6 by 0.9? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6484 (= GC 5883, Stephan list VII (#??), (Safford 41), 1860 RA 17 46 03, NPD 65 28.7) is "extremely faint, very small, round, much brighter middle".
Discovery Notes: Dreyer was not aware of Safford's work until the NGC was nearly ready for publication, so his observations were only mentioned in an appendix and were not shown in the individual NGC entries (hence the reference in parentheses).
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.9 by 1.9? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6485 (= GC 5884, Marth #354, Stephan list II (#??), 1860 RA 17 46 38, NPD 58 30.1) is "very faint, very small, round".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.5 by 1.4? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6486 (Stephan list XI (#19), 1860 RA 17 47 13, NPD 60 08.8) is "a very small star slightly nebulous".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.8 by 0.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6487 (Stephan list XI (#20), 1860 RA 17 47 19, NPD 60 07.6) is "faint, small, round, gradually brighter middle".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.8 by 1.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6488 (Swift list IV (#59), 1860 RA 17 47 45, NPD 27 43.8) is "pretty faint, pretty small, extended".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.7 by 0.5? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6489 (Swift list I (#77), 1860 RA 17 47 46, NPD 29 53.4) is "most extremely faint, pretty large, a little extended, between 2 stars".
Physical Information: Apparent size 0.4 by 0.3? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6490 (= GC 5885, Marth #355, Stephan list II (#??), 1860 RA 17 48 22, NPD 71 35.8) is "very faint, very small, stellar".
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.0 by 0.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6491 (Swift list I (#78), 1860 RA 17 48 25, NPD 28 25.9) is "pretty faint, extremely small, very faint star attached, northwestern of 2", the other being NGC 6493.
Warning About Non-Standard Designation: This galaxy is often pointlessly and confusingly misdesignated as NGC 6493A.
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.2 by 0.5? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6492 (= GC 4345 = JH 3714, 1860 RA 17 48 31, NPD 156 24.7) is "pretty faint, small, pretty much extended 90°, 12th magnitude star attached on east"
Physical Information: Apparent size 2.5 by 1.2? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6493 (Swift list I (#79), 1860 RA 17 48 40, NPD 28 27.3) is "faint, extremely small, round, a planetary nebula?, faint star very near, southeastern of 2", the other being NGC 6491.
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.1 by 1.1? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6494 (= GC 4346 = JH 1990, M 23, 1860 RA 17 48 41, NPD 108 59.7) is "a cluster, bright, very large, pretty rich, a little compressed, stars from 10th magnitude".
Physical Information: M23 is an irregular cluster of stars 15 to 20 light-years in diameter, about 2200 light-years from the Sun. The brightest of its approximately 150 stars are almost 9th magnitude, or -- taking the distance of the cluster into account -- about 60 times brighter than the Sun. This implies an age for the cluster of about two to three hundred million years. Apparent size about 25 arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6495 (= GC 5886, Marth #356, Stephan list II (#??), 1860 RA 17 48 42, NPD 71 38.7) is "faint, small, round".
Physical Information: Apparent size 2.0 by 1.8? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6496 (= GC 4347 = JH 3715, Dunlop 460?, 1860 RA 17 48 51, NPD 134 13.9) is "a nebula and cluster, pretty large, much extended, gradually a very little brighter middle". (Steinicke lists this as Dunlop 461, and since Dreyer used a question mark with his identification as Dunlop 460, the change is probably not very surprising.)
Physical Information: Apparent size 5.6? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6497 (Swift list I (#80), 1860 RA 17 49 10, NPD 30 28.4) is "extremely faint, pretty small, a little extended, star close to north, northwestern of 2", the other being NGC 6498; but since that is a duplicate entry for this one, Swift couldn't have seen both at the same time (and didn't, because the two observations were separated by 10 days).
Physical Information: Apparent size 1.4 by 0.7? arcmin.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6498 (Swift list I (#81), 1860 RA 17 49 11, NPD 30 28.9) is "pretty faint, pretty small, round, faint star very near, southeastern of 2", the other being NGC 6497; but since that is a duplicate entry for this one, Swift couldn't have seen both at the same time (and didn't, because the two observations were separated by 10 days).
Physical Information: Given the duplicate entry, see NGC 6497 for anything else.

Historical Identification: Per Dreyer, NGC 6499 (= GC 5887, Marth #357, 1860 RA 17 49 14, NPD 71 36) is "a small double star in a nebula".