Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 1273 on 14 Feb 1863 with the 11" refractor at Copenhagen Observatory. His position (measured on 2 nights) matches CGCG 540-099 = PGC 12396. The same night he discovered NGC 1267, 1268, 1270, 1272 and 1278.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/28/84): faint, small. Located 4.4' WNW of NGC 1275 in the core of AGC 426.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/24/87): faint, very small, round, small bright core. Forms the NW vertex of a parallelogram of brighter galaxies in the core of AGC 426 with NGC 1272 3.1' SSW, NGC 1275 4.4' ESE, and NGC 1278 5.3' ENE.

600/800mm - 24" (2/15/18): at 375x; relatively bright, fairly small, round, 35" diameter, very small bright nucleus. One of a dozen galaxies logged within 8'! Forms the NW vertex of a trapezoid with NGC 1272, 1274 and 1275 and at the midpoint of NGC 1272 3' SSW and CGCG 540-101 3' NNE. CGCG 540-101 (misidentified as IC 1907 in RC3 and PGC) appeared fairly faint, fairly small, round, 25" diameter. An equilateral triangle of mag 14 stars is close south.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb