William Herschel discovered IC 780 on 6 Apr 1785 (sweep 393) and recorded "suspected, but probably a deception of two close stars." CH's reduction is 1.3' northeast of this galaxy, so the identification is certain, although he didn't confirm the observation and it wasn't included in his published catalogues. Wolfgang Steinicke included this observation of IC 780 in his "Herschel Special" objects file.

Stephane Javelle found the galaxy again on 13 Apr 1893 and recorded it in list II-747. Dreyer, assuming it was new, catalogued it as IC 780 with credit to Javelle.

600/800mm - 24" (5/30/16): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 5:3 N-S, ~35"x20", brighter along the major axis. Located 10' W of HJ 517 = 9.1/12.5 at 20", 14' SSW of mag 6.1 HD 107326 and 35' WSW of mag 4.8 12 Com. IC 3171 lies 14' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb