Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 1204 = LM 1-86 on 26 Dec 1886 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory and reported "mag 15.5, E 45?, B* and sev F stars inv in neb, resolvable." His position is a good match with MCG -02-08-045 = PGC 11583 and the description is appropriate for this galaxy. Herbert Howe measured an accurate position in 1899-00 using the 20" refractor at Chamberlin Observatory (repeated in the IC 2 notes) and mentions "I noticed simply a small triangle of stars of mags 11, 12, and 13. The brightest star seemed to be enveloped in an extremely faint mantle of nebulous matter."

Recently (27 Mar 2015), I found that WH observed NGC 1204 on 27 Nov 1785 (sweep 478), though he only logged "a deception", and didn't assign it an internal discovery number or H-designation. His offset in position from #1193 = NGC 1200 (the previous object in the sweep), places the "deception" just 1.2' south of NGC 1204, based on Corwin's reduction (Steinicke also confirms this observation). Based on my visual notes, I can see why WH found the appearance ambiguous.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/17/01): interesting object as it appears as a diffuse glow, elongated ENE-WSW with three stars near including a mag 11 star attached at the south edge.

600/800mm - 24" (12/6/18): at 375x; very unusual appearance with a fairly bright mag 12.5 star attached on the south edge with the galaxy elongated 2:1 or 5:2 WSW-ENE and extending ~0.9'x0.4'. A mag 14.5 star is 45" SW (outside the glow) and a mag 15.3 star is just 15" SE of the brighter star. Member of the NGC 1200 group (USGC S110).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb