George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered IC 461, along with IC 458, 459, 464 on 31 Jan 1851. Lewis Swift found this galaxy again on 14 Sep 1888 (list VIII-45) and by Kobold on 8 Dec 1893. All 3 are credited in the IC as Kobold's position was used.

400/500mm - 18" (12/18/06): extremely faint, very small, slightly elongated SW-NE, 0.3'x0.2'. This small galaxy is just preceding a 1.5' string of 3 mag 12-13 stars angling from SW to NE and 2.8' SE of IC 458 in the NGC 2340 group (second faintest of 7 in the field at 280x).

600/800mm - 24" (2/15/18): at 375x; faint, fairly small, oval 4:3 SW-NE, 0.4'x0.3', low even surface brightness. A string of three mag 12-13 stars oriented SW-NE follows closely. A mag 15.5 star is at the southeast edge of the galaxy. Located 7' SW of NGC 2340 and 2.8' SE of IC 458.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb