Guillaume Bigourdan discovered NGC 1259 = Big. 17 on 21 Oct 1884 with the 12" at the Paris Observatory and noted, "round, 25" diameter, vslbM". With respect to Big. 18 = NGC 1260, his position is 11 sec of RA west and 1' S. This offset corresponds to MCG +07-07-046 = PGC 12208 (11 sec west and 1.2' S). MCG misidentifies NGC 1260 as NGC 1259 and the RNGC misidentifies UGC 2626 (3.7' SW of NGC 1259) as NGC 1259!

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/19/87): extremely faint, very small. An extremely faint mag 15.5 star is at the west edge. Located 3.7' NE of UGC 2626 = (R)NGC 1259. First of three with NGC 1260 and MCG +07-07-48 within AGC 426.

600/800mm - 24" (2/15/18): at 375x; faint, small, round, 15" diameter. A mag 15 star is at the west edge and a small trio of 13th mag star is close east. In the central region of AGC 426 with NGC 1260 is 2.2' NE, UGC 2626 is 3.7' SW, MCG +07-07-048 is 2.3' ESE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb