J.L.E. Dreyer discovered NGC 1279 on 12 Dec 1876 with the 72" at Birr Castle. He simply logged "vF, vS" and measured a micrometric offset from a star between NGC 1275 and NGC 1272 at 272.4" in PA 104.5?. At this precise offset (270" in PA 105?) is PGC 12448 = PGC 12449 (duplicate entries in the PGC). The PGC (and secondary sources such as Megastar) misidentifies PGC 12450 = V Zw 338 as NGC 1279. The current versions of HyperLEDA and NED have the correct identification.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/28/84): extremely faint, very small, near visual threshold. Located 2.8' SE of NGC 1275.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/12/88): very faint, very small, slightly elongated. Visible continuously with averted vision. Located in the central core of AGC 426 just 2.8' SE of NGC 1275! This galaxy is not listed in MCG, CGCG or RC3 and was incorrectly identified in the PGC.

17.5" (10/24/87): very faint, small, slightly elongated ~N-S.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb