Julius Schmidt discovered NGC 1381 on 19 Jan 1865 with the 6.2-inch refractor at the Athens Observatory during his survey of the Fornax Cluster (nebula "e" in his table published in 1876). His position is an excellent match with ESO 358-029 = PGC 13321. Of the 11 "new" objects listed by Schmidt in his table, two are clearly duplicates (object "a" = NGC 1318 = NGC 1317 and "c" = NGC 1375). Of the remaining 9, only 4 have accurate positions that can be matched up with certainty.

200/250mm - 8" (10/13/81): faint, small, elongated.

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/22/84): fairly bright, edge-on 3:1 NW-SE, bright core, faint elongated halo. A mag 14 star is 1.8' SE of center. Member of the Fornax I cluster with NGC 1379 10' SW and NGC 1387 14' SSE.

400/500mm - 18" (12/17/11): fairly bright, fairly large, very elongated 3:1 NW-SE, 1.6'x0.5'. Sharply concentrated with a small, very bright core that increases to the center. A mag 14 star lies 1.8' SE and a similar star is 3' NW. Situated nearly at the midpoint of a line connecting NGC 1382 10' NE and NGC 1379 10' SW. NGC 1374/1375 pair is ~15' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb