Frank Muller discovered NGC 1390 = LM 2-372 in 1886 with the 26" refractor at the Leander McCormick Observatory and noted "mag 14.0, 1.0'x0.6', E 260?." There is nothing at his position but 16 sec of RA west and 2' N is ESO 548-054 = PGC 13386, the only nearby candidate. His PA is in error (should read 20?, instead of 260?). The RA was corrected in Robert Baker's 1937 "Catalogue of 1113 Galaxies in a Region in Fornax and Eridanus".

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/12/02): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 SSW-NNE, 1.0'x0.4'. Very weak concentration along the major axis. Situated 6' N of a mag 9.8 star and ~40' SW of the NGC 1407 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb