Guillaume Bigourdan discovered IC 656 on 15 Mar 1887 with the 12" refractor at the Paris Observatory. At his position is a triple star plus PGC 1537008, an extremely faint galaxy on the southeast side. I think the galaxy is probably too faint too have been seen by Bigourdan, but the stars certainly could have appeared nebulous. Corwin notes that NGC 3467 = h793, observed by John Herschel and guest Francis Bailey, may apply to IC 656 as the description "Stellar. 2 or 3 stars with a nebulous blur observed by Mr. Bailey", applies better to IC 656 than to the fairly bright galaxy 4.4' W. But the galaxy is close to JH's position and much brighter, of course. See Corwin's and Thomson's IC notes.

600/800mm - 24" (2/22/14): at 260x a 12" pair of mag 15 stars were resolved. The SDSS shows a third fainter star, as well as a very faint galaxy (not seen). Located 4.4' E of NGC 3457 = NGC 3460.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb