William Herschel discovered NGC 196 = H II-860 = h41, along with NGC 192 and NGC 201, on 28 Dec 1790 (sweep 988) and logged "pF, pS, vgbM." JH made 4 observations. MCG mislabels this galaxy as NGC 197.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/8/88): fairly faint, very small, round, small bright core. Forms a very close pair with NGC 197 1' SSE in the HCG 7 group. NGC 192 lies 3' SSW and NGC 201 5' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb