William Herschel discovered NGC 1370 = H III-559 = H III-960 = h2554 on 20 Sep 1786 (sweep 597) and logged III 559 as "3 vS stars in a line, with vF nebulosity. On 19 Dec 1799 (sweep 1091) he noted III 960 as "vF, vS, 300 confirmed it." His position on both sweeps are pretty close to ESO 548-048 and clearly his first description (III-559) mentioning "3 vS stars in a line" applies to this galaxy (one of the "stars" is the nucleus). In the CGH catalogue, JH assigned the first H-designation to h2551 = NGC 1362 and the second to h2554 = NGC 1370. Auwers has a note to III 559, commenting on the large discrepancy in position with h2551 (87 seconds in RA and 4' in Dec). In the GC, JH decided to reverse the assignment of his father's numbers and Dreyer copied this in the NGC. But both observations refer to NGC 1370. JH made 3 observations, recording on 11 Dec 1835, "vF; R; situated exactly between 2 stars 14th mag."

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/9/01): fairly faint, small, elongated 4:3 SW-NE, 0.6'x0.4'. Situated exactly midway between two mag 13/14 stars just off the NW and SE flanks (both ~40" from center)! NGC 1362 lies 20' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb