John Dreyer discovered IC 407 = J. 1-134 on 25 Jan 1875 as an assistant on Lawrence Parsons' 72-inch. His description reads "cE 163.1° [NNW-SSE]. *10m Pos. 200.3°, Dist. 408.5". The orientation and offset to the brighter star (HD 34528) are a perfect match with this galaxy. But Dreyer assumed the observation refered to NGC 1832 (GC 1043), located 1.4° WSW, so he didn't assign a new NGC number.

Stephane Javelle found the galaxy again on 7 Dec 1891 and called it "faint, little elongated N-S." Javelle measured an accurate position and Dreyer gave him discovery credit, not aware of his own prior discovery.

600/800mm - 24" (1/28/17): at 375x; fairly faint, moderately large, elongated 3:1 ~N-S, 45"x15", fairly low surface brightness, broad concentration but no distinct core or nucleus. Located 6.7' NNE of mag 8.6 HD 34528.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb