George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 1601 = GC 867, along with NGC 1603 and 1606, on 14 Jan 1849. A sketch of the field surrounding NGC 1600 was made in 1850. Heinrich d'Arrest independently found the nebula on 16 Jan 1865 and it was catalogued again in the GC Supplement (GC 5343), though the comment was added "probably = GC 867". The two GC entries were combined in the NGC.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/1/92): very faint, extremely small, round, very small bright core. Faintest of a close trio with NGC 1600 1.6' S and NGC 1603 2.9' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb