?douard Stephan discovered NGC 1661 = St XII-35 on 21 Dec 1881 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory. HIs position is accurate.

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/23/89): faint, small, almost round, bright core. A line of four mag 12-13.5 stars is 1.5' S oriented E-W with length 1.7'. In a group with NGC 1654 and NGC 1657.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb