William Herschel discovered NGC 160 = H III-476 = h32 on 5 Dec 1785 (sweep 484) and logged "vF, vS, stellar, a few minutes south preceding a pretty bright star. 240 showed the same." JH reported "has a * 7m, 5' distant; pos of neb from * 195.5°." Lord Rosse's assistants made 7 observations of the field with the 72-inch.

300/350mm - 13.1" (10/20/84): moderately bright, almost round. Located 4.2' SSW of mag 7.5 SAO 74134. Forms a wide pair with NGC 169 11' ENE.

600/800mm - 24" (9/30/16): at 200x; fairly bright or bright, large, elongated 2:1 or 5:2 SW-NE, sharply concentrated with a small very bright core that increases to a stellar nucleus. Surrounding the core is a large, low surface brightness halo ~1.8'x0.8'. Situated 4.3' SSW of mag 7.3 HD 3293. NGC 169/IC 1559 (close pair) lies 11' ENE and mag 6.2 HD 2311 is 15' ENE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb