William Herschel discovered NGC 1407 = H I-107 = h2570 on 6 Oct 1785 (sweep 459) and recorded "B, R, mbM or large nucleus, about 1.5' diameter." JH logged it as "vB, L, R, first vg then vs, vmbM; 3'."

200/250mm - 8" (10/13/81): bright, small, round, small bright core.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/18/85): bright, fairly small, bright core, stellar nucleus. Forms a wide pair with NGC 1400 11.6' SW.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/11/99): bright, moderately large, round, 1.5' diameter, bright core, nearly stellar nucleus. Brightest in the NGC 1407 Group (LGG 100), which includes 8 NGC galaxies and IC 343.

600/800mm - 24" (1/1/19): at 260x; very bright, very large, round, 2.5'-3' diameter. The galaxy displayed three distinct brightness zones that were sharply delineated. The large halo was fairly smooth, but the sharply concentrated with a very bright core. The core has a sharp brightness spike with an extremely bright nucleus!

A number of galaxies are nearby including NGC 1400 11.5' SW, NGC 1402 10' WNW, IC 343 8' N, IC 345 21' NE, IC 346 29' NE and several more.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb