William Herschel discovered NGC 1056 = H III-584 = h256 on 26 Oct 1786 (sweep 626) and recorded "vF, S, bM". On 16 Sep 1828 (sweep 178), John Herschel logged "pB; S; R; psbM; 12" [diameter]."

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/23/92): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, increases to rounder small bright core. A mag 12 star is 2.2' ENE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb