Williamina Fleming discovered IC 421 = HN 66 on 27 Jun 1888 on a Harvard College Observatory photographic plate of the M42 region. She described "faint nebulosity about 2' in diameter." Edward Pickering published the discovery in the 1890 Harvard Annal publication (1890AnHar..18..113P) and he was credited with the discovery in the IC. The published position is 10' too far south.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/14/99): very faint, moderately large low surface brightness glow, ~2' diameter, very weak concentration, ill-defined halo fades into background. A mag 13 star lies 2.3' ESE of center. The galaxy is collinear with two wide brighter unequal pairs 6' NNW and 13' NNW.

600/800mm - 24" (2/7/16): fairly faint, very large, slightly elongated ~E-W, ~2' diameter, broad fairly weak concentration, so the surface brightness of this reddened galaxy is fairly low. A wide double star (HJ 2271 = 10/11.5 at 19") is 6.4' NNW. MCG -01-15-002 = VV 848 is 14' NE. This disrupted galaxy appeared faint, fairly small, slightly elongated SW-NE, 24"x18", contains a slightly brighter nucleus. The tidal tail to the southwest was not seen.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb