Lawrence Parsons, the 4th Earl of Rosse, discovered NGC 1277 on 4 Dec 1875. Dreyer independently found the galaxy a year later on 12 Dec 1876 and both observations are included in Dreyer's GC Supplement (5304 = 5305). Dreyer equated the GC entries in the NGC.

Lewis Swift found this galaxy again on 14 Sep 1888 and reported it as new as the 32nd nebula in his 8th list, writing "eeeF; vS; R; close D[ouble] with 1276; M[iddle] of 3 in line; 1271, 73, 76, 78 in field". His position is within 1' of NGC 1277 and the description applies, except it forms a close double with NGC 1278. Dreyer didn't assign an IC designation to Sw. VIII-32, apparently correctly deciding it was a duplicate. Unfortunately, Sw. VIII-31 didn't receive an IC designation either, although it applies to PGC 12430 (described as "one of 3 in a line").

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/28/84): very faint, extremely small. Located 0.8' NW of NGC 1278.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/24/87): faint, very small, oval ~E-W, small bright core. Located in the central core of AGC 426 3.7' N of NGC 1275 and forms a close pair with NGC 1278 0.8' SE.

600/800mm - 24" (2/13/18): at 375x; fairly faint to moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 2:1 E-W, fairly high surface brightness, very small bright core, stellar nucleus. Forms a "double" with NGC 1278" just 45" SE between centers.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb