Rudolph Spitaler discovered IC 1481 = Spitaler 34 on 9 Oct 1891 and reported "Very faint, round nebula of 1/4' diameter. Found on 9 October 1891.

600/800mm - 24" (9/22/17): at 375x; fairly faint, fairly small, round, fairly high surface brightness, 25" diameter, well concentrated with a very small bright core. Situated 1.5' NW of mag 8.4 HD 219905, which detracts a bit from the view. Also a mag 11.2 star is 2.4' ESE, with the galaxy forming the NW vertex of an isosceles right triangle with the stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb