William Herschel discovered NGC 194 = H II-856 = h40 on 25 Dec 1790 (sweep 985) and recorded "F, S, vgbM." JH called it "pB; S; R; bM." The NGC position matches UGC 407 = PGC 2362.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/8/88): fairly faint, fairly small, round, small bright core, stellar nucleus. Located 5' S of mag 7.3 SAO 109348! Member of the NGC 182 group with NGC 199 6' NE and NGC 200 10' SSE.

600/800mm - 24" (12/12/17): at 375x; bright, fairly small, slightly out of round, ~35"x30". Sharply concentrated with a very bright, very small core and stellar nucleus. A mag 7.4 star is 6' NNW. Near the center of the NGC 182 group with several galaxies near; NGC 200 is 10' SSE, NGC 199 is 7' NE and NGC 186 is 15' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb