Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 1391 = LM 2-373 in 1886 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory. His description reads "mag 15.4, 0.4' dia, R, gbMN, 1st of 3, one of which is GC 742 [NGC 1383]. There is nothing at his position, but 28 tsec of RA east is ESO 548-059 = PGC 13436 and Ormond Stone's micrometrically measured RA matches this galaxy. Leavenworth described NGC 1391 as the "1st of 3, one of which is GC 742 [NGC 1383]", but it should read "2nd of 3" as NGC 1393 is further west. Herbert Howe caught this error in his NGC visual survey.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/11/99): faint, fairly small, elongated 4:3 ~E-W, very weak concentration. Located between NGC 1393 5.6' SW and NGC 1394 5.0' NE in the NGC 1407 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb