William Herschel discovered NGC 1425 = H II-852 on 9 Oct 1790 (sweep 972) and recorded "F, pL, irr R, gbM." His position is accurate. Harold Corwin comments that Lewis Swift's object Sw. XI-61 (later IC 1988), found on 3 Oct 1897 (date given as 14 Oct in his large 11th list in AN) and described as "eF, pL, R; 2 sts near f, wide D* np", may be a duplicate observation. There are two stars "near following" this galaxy, but the wide double star is west-southwest, not northwest per Swift. The identification NGC 1425 = IC 1988 also requires that Swift made a 10? error in declination, though these types of errors are not uncommon in Swift's later observations from southern California.

300/350mm - 13.1" (10/10/86): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, bright core. A pair of mag 12.5/14 stars at 30" separation are 2' NE of center and a mag 11 star lies 2.5' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb