Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 1270 on 14 Feb 1863 with the 11" refractor at Copenhagen Observatory and placed it 14 seconds of time following NGC 1267. At the same time, d'Arrest discovered nearby NGC 1267, 1268, 1272, 1273 and 1278. Dreyer measured a micrometric offset from NGC 1272 in 12 Dec 1876. Dreyer found this galaxy again on 11 Sep 1888 and reported it as new in his 8th list. Dreyer correctly assumed Sw. VIII-30 was a reobservation of one of the earlier discoveries in the cluster, so didn't assign it an IC designation.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/28/84): faint, small, weak concentration. Last of four in a small group in the core of AGC 426 with NGC 1267 2.5' W.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/24/87): faint, very small, slightly elongated ~N-S, small bright core. Located in the central core of AGC 426 with NGC 1267 2.6' W, NGC 1268 2.7' WNW and NGC 1272 4.4' ENE.

600/800mm - 24" (2/13/18): at 375x; relatively bright, fairly small, round, ~0.9' diameter, fairly high surface brightness, increases to the center, thin fainter halo. In the central core of AGC 426 with the trio of NGC 1267, 1268 and CGCG 540-089 immediately west and NGC 1272 4.5' ENE. PGC 12358, just 1.2' E, was faint, small, slightly elongated N-S, ~18" diameter, very faint stellar nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb