John Herschel discovered NGC 1771 = h2720 on 25 Dec 1837 and recorded "vF, mE, glbM, 25" long, in field with many B and 1 vB * 7' m np the neb." His CGH position is accurate, but he made an error precessing the coordinates to 1860 for the GC, where the position is 10' too far south. This was copied by Dreyer into the NGC. Viewing through the 26" refractor at the Union Observatory, Robert Innes described it in 1926 as "Exactly like the last (ESO 85-14), slightly brighter; elongated 130?-310?; about 2'; stars seem to be involved." Eric Lindsay noted in "Some NGC objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud" (IAJ, 6, 286-289), "A galaxy at the same RA but 9' south, which seems to be this object."

300/350mm - 14" (4/7/16 - Coonabarabran, 178x): faint, fairly small, very elongated 4:1 NW-SE, 1.2'x0.3', low surface brightness, occasional faint stellar nucleus. Two mag 12 stars are 1.7' SW and 3' SW. Located 6' SE of mag 8.2 HD 32363 and 4' SE of a mag 10.7 star (the two stars are nearly collinear with the major axis of the galaxy).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb