William Herschel discovered NGC 1482 = H III 962 = h2594 on 19 Dec 1799 (sweep 1091) and recorded "vF; vS; near 2 bright stars, south preceding of them." JH observed the galaxy from the Cape of Good Hope on 13 Nov 1835 and logged "F, S, R; makes an obtuse angled triangle with two bright stars, the one preceding, the other following it." A week later he called it "eF, S; makes an obtuse angled nearly isoceles triangle with two stars 10th mag north of it." His third observation on 11 Dec was recorded as "pB, lE, gbM (newly polished mirror); makes an obtuse angled triangle with two stars 10th mag to its north."

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/1/92): faint, fairly small, elongated 4:3 ~E-W, broad concentration. Forms the southern vertex of an isosceles triangle with mag 8.7 SAO 168936 2.5' NW and mag 8.6 SAO 168941 2' NE! Forms a pair with NGC 1481 5' NNW..

600/800mm - 24" (12/1/13): moderately bright to fairly bright, fairly large, oval 5:3 WNW-ESE, ~1.5'x0.9'. Contains a large bright core that increases to a very small, bright nucleus. Surrounding the core is a very low surface brightness halo. Forms a right triangle with two bright stars; mag 8.6 HD 24694 2.3' ENE and mag 8.6 HD 24672 2.6' NNW. Brightest in a triplet (KTS 22) with NGC 1481 5.0' NW and ESO 549-35 9' NE. The dust lane in this IR-luminous starburst galaxy was not seen.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb