Hind's Variable Nebula was discovered (along with T Tauri) by John Russell Hind on 11 Oct 1852 with a 7-inch refractor. Because of it's variability, disappearance in the early 1860's, and eventual recovery by Barnard in 1890, it was a subject of fascination and numerous journal reports by most of the major great visual observers of the time including d'Arrest, Tempel, Charconac, Auwers, Secchi, Lassell, Struve, Winnecke, Lawrence Parsons, Dreyer, Barnard and Burnham.

John Russell Hind discovered NGC 1555 = Au 20 = Hind's Variable Nebula, which surrounds the variable star T Tauri, on 11 Oct 1852 with the 7-inch Dollond refractor of George Bishop. He reported in AN 839 a "very small nebulous-looking object...; it was south-preceding a star of 10th mag, which to my surprise, has escaped insertion on the map for 4h R.A. recently published - possibly it may be variable." Hind had discovered the young variable T Tauri and the variable reflection nebula NGC 1555. The following summarizes the visual history of this object as told by Wolfgang Steinicke in his "Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters".

Jean Charcornac confirmed the existence of the nebula in 1854 at Marseilles, likely using a 4-inch refractor. It was probably independently found by James Breen with a 12-inch refractor at Cambridge in 1855. Heinrich d'Arrest first observed the nebula on 3 Nov 1855 in Leibniz and described "a pretty bright nebula, 4' diameter, star 10 at its northern end" and made several additional observations in 1856. Arthur Auwers made 7 observations between 7 Jan and 3 Mar 1858 with a 4.3-inch refractor. He noted the nebula "was visible quite easily and without difficulty, but much fainter than it must have been appearing [to d'Arrest] in 1855 and 1856. He later concluded that it reached its maximum brightness in 1856. He listed it as #20 in his 1862 catalogue of new nebulae and reported the observations in his notes section.

By 1858, though, there was some fading as Charcornac could not recover it at Paris with the 10-inch refractor. It was not seen with confidence by Eduard Sch?nfeld in Feb 1861 using the 6.5-inch Steinheil refractor at Mannheim Observatory. Auwers was unsuccessful in 1861 with a 6-inch Fraunhofer and so was d'Arrest with the 11-inch Merz refractor in 1861-62. Leverrier and Charcornac failed to see nebulosity with the 12.4-inch refractor at Paris Observatory or the new 31.5-inch silver-on-glass reflector in Jan-Feb 1862. Father Angelo Secchi also failed in Rome using the 9.4-inch Merz refractor in Jan 1862. His report suggested a connection between the fading of the variable star and the nebula, shining by reflected light. William Lassell made an unsuccessful attempt with his 48-inch from Malta in Mar-Apr 1862. Hind made another attempt on 12 Dec 1863 in excellent conditions, but failed.

The only reported (barely) successful sighting of the nebula during 1861-62 was by Struve and Winnecke using the 15-inch Merz refractor in Pulkovo on 29 Dec 1861 and more easily on 22 Mar 1862, when a sketch was made. When Struve visited Lassell on Malta, they took a look again on 10 Oct 1863 with the 48-inch and could discern "three or four individual masses separated from each other by black sky", so Struve felt Lassell may have previously looked in the wrong place. "Hind's wonderful nebula in Taurus" was reported to the general public by Reverend Thomas Webb in 1864 in the popular magazine Intellectual Observer and the same year it was catalogued by John Herschel (who never saw it) as GC 839 and he reported on the history in the Notes section. In 1865 and 1866, Vogel made several observations (both positive and negative) in Leibniz with 4.6-inch and 6.5-inch refractors and reported very different degrees of visibility. But during the same time frame and into 1867 it was not seen by Sch?nfeld in Mannheim and was completely invisible to Struve on 14 Mar 1868 at Pulkovo, though he reported a new nebula (Stuve's "Lost Nebula", NGC 1554). Winnecke made a marginal observation in 1875 and sketched it with certainty in 1877. Tempel observed the field in 1877, made a map of the region including his and others observations, but apparently included nonexistent stars and nebulosity which he recorded.

Hind's Variable Nebula wasn't seen again until 1890 when it was barely recovered by E.E. Barnard and S.W. Burnham using the Lick 36-inch refractor. Barnard confirmed a very small, but "conspicuous and definite" glow (only 4" diameter) surrounding T Tauri, which he assumed was NGC 1555, and an excessively faint, round, larger nebula close south that they took as new, but was actually the real NGC 1555. The larger glow was observed again in 1891 by Burnham in 1891 and by Barnard in February 1895, when he finally realized that the faint object just south of T Tauri was actually Hind's Variable Nebula, (barely) visible again. But on three attempts in Sep 1895 ("under the finest conditions") he could find no trace of the nebula. Three years later in Sep 1898, Barnard made additional observations with the 40-inch Yerkes refractor and reported a tiny nebula attached southeast of T Tauri. The first photograph showing nebulosity was made by Keeler on 6 Dec 1899 and three patches were recorded (two corresponding with Barnard's sketches), but no sign of Struve's Lost Nebula. Carl Wirtz was unsuccessful in 1906 seeing either NGC 1554 or 1555 in a visual attempt using the 19-inch Merz refractor at Strausberg as well as by S.W. Burnham in 1907 using the 40-inch Yerkes refractor. Dreyer discussed many of the original visual observations in the NGC, IC 1 and IC 2 Notes section. In 1936, it was mentioned in the Carnegie Institute Yearbook that NGC 1555 "have been under observation by Baade and Hubble...About 1920 the region of the knot D in Pease's diagram (Mt. Wilson Contributions, No. 127) began to brighten and can now readily be seen in the telescope". I assume they mean visually in the 100-inch!

Modern sources often group NGC 1554 and 1555 (discovered by Struve) together, although there is no nebulosity visible on the Sky Survey at Struve's position for NGC 1555. The RNGC RA for NGC 1554 and NGC 1555 is 1.0 min of RA too far east.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/10/96): this is Hind's Variable (reflection) Nebula, illuminated by T Tauri (9-13). At 100x and 140x (unfiltered) an extremely faint haze was highly suspected on the west or west-southwest side of T Tauri (mag 9) in the direction of a mag 14 star to the west or slightly south (this star is at the position of NGC 1554 = "Struve's Lost Nebula"). No details in the nebula were visible at 100x (it did not appear as an arc) but a sketch made at 100x exactly matched the orientation of the nebulosity with respect to T Tauri. Nebulosity was not visible at 220x and no nebulosity was noted following T Tauri.

600/800mm - 24" (1/12/13): at 200x unfiltered, Hind's Variable Nebula was immediately seen as a very faint, fairly small, elongated haze, roughly 40" in length and slightly curved or bowed out to the west. The variable reflection nebula seemed unevenly lit, though it was too faint to see any specific details. This famous nebula is illuminated by T Tauri (mag 10-10.5), just 35" to the east. T Tauri is perfectly collinear with mag 8.4 HD 27560 5.6' SW and a mag 12 star 4.7' SW. The nebula has likely brightened since the view in 1996 with my 17.5".

900/1200mm - 48" (10/29/19): at 375x, this variable nebula was immediately seen as a diffuse, elongated patch just west of T Tauri. But the scope was shaking from the wind and the seeing was poor, so details were lacking.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb