R.J. Mitchell, LdR's assistant, discovered NGC 169 on 18 Sep 1857 with Lord Rosse's 72" and noted "a vS, double nebula, the n one is E sp nf, bM. A month later he logged "D nebula, alpha [on a diagram] is mE p f, bM. Beta is lE nearly n s, bM." In Lord Rosse's 1861 publication, it was mistakenly assumed the the observation referred to NGC 160 so was not a new object. The following year Heinrich d'Arrest independently discovered NGC 169 and he was credited with discovery in the General Catalogue (GC 82), published in 1864. Mitchell's "Beta" was assigned GC 80.

d'Arrest listed his discovery in a large table of new nebulae published in 1865, he was able to add a footnote that his object was discovered earlier at Birr Castle (assuming it was identical to GC 80). In the NGC, Dreyer correctly credited both LrR and d'Arrest for the discovery of NGC 169, but he mistakenly described NGC 160 as a double nebula (repeating Mitchell's error) and deleted GC 80 (Mitchell's "Beta"). Finally, the companion was catalogued IC 1559, though it should have received a NGC designation. See that number for more.

MCG labeled the brighter northern galaxy as NGC 169B and the fainter southern galaxy IC 1559) as NGC 169A.

300/350mm - 13.1" (10/20/84): moderately bright, slightly elongated ~E-W. Located 3.8' WSW of mag 6.4 SAO 74148! Forms a contact pair with IC 1559 = NGC 169A just 21" S of center (Arp 282). Similar appearance to NGC 160, which lies 11' WSW.

600/800mm - 24" (9/30/16): at 200x; fairly bright, fairly small, elongated 5:2 E-W, ~0.8'x0.3'. Contains a small, bright elongated core that increases to a stellar nucleus. Forms a disturbed, interacting pair (Arp 282) with IC 1559 at the south edge [22" between centers]. The companion is fairly faint, small, slightly elongated ~N-S, 15" diameter, faint stellar nucleus. Located just 3.8' SW of mag 6.2 HD 3411.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb