William Herschel discovered NGC 1087 = H II-466 = h265 on 9 Oct 1785 (sweep 463) and noted "pB, cL, R, mbM." A month later on 7 Nov 1785 (sweep 470) he logged "pB, pL, irr R."

Based on photos taken at the Helwan Observatoiry in 1919-20, the galaxy was described as "B, 3' x 1.5', E 10? ?, spiral with fairly sharp BN and about 20 bright, almost stellar condensations; the whols in south portion of nebula are fairly normal, but the north portion is rather curious."

200/250mm - 8" (12/6/80): faint, fairly small, diffuse. Located near a string of mag 10 stars.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): fairly bright, moderately large, weak concentration, elongated N-S.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/14/87): bright, fairly large, elongated 3:2 N-S, gradually brighter halo, small bright core. Two mag 11 stars 2.9' NE and 3.8' ESE of center are part of a string of brighter stars oriented NW-SE. NGC 1090 lies 15' NNE. Nearby MCG +00-08-012 was not seen.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb