Lewis Swift discovered IC 742 = Sw. VIII-60 on 22 Apr 1889 and reported "eeeF; pS; R; pB * sp". His position is 6 seconds of RA too far west (within his usual errors) and the description matches.

600/800mm - 24" (5/20/20): at 225x and 375x; faint, small, round, low surface brightness, 0.6' diameter. A mag 10.8 star is 4.4' SW.

24" (6/3/19): at 260x; faint, fairly small, round, 40" diameter, low nearly even surface brightness with just a slightly brighter nucleus. Located 27' SW of NGC 3940 and 26' NW of NGC 3937. Member of the USGC U427 group, which includes NGCs 3910, 3919, 3925, 3929, 3937, 3940, 3943, 3946, 3947, 3954.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb