William Herschel discovered NGC 1003 = H II-238 = H III-198 = h240 on 6 Oct 1784 (sweep 283) and noted "Suspected, but the haziness will not permit to verify it." On 17 Oct 1786 (sweep 614), he logged "pB, mE nearly in the parallel, mbM, near 4' long and about 1' br." On the following night (sweep 618) he logged "cB, mE, vgmbM, near 4' l." The two H-designations were combined in the GC and NGC (suggested by Marth).

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/22/84): moderately bright, elongated ~E-W, weak concentration. A mag 13 star is on the NE edge 0.8' from center. An extremely faint knot is at the NW edge.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/1/86): moderately bright, elongated 3:1 WNW-ESE, bright core. A mag 13 star is involved at the NE side, just 0.8' from center. Located 2' NE of a mag 10 star.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb