William Herschel discovered NGC 198 = H II-857 on 25 Dec 1790 (sweep 985) and recorded "F, S, vgbM". At the same time he found H II-858 = NGC 200 to the northeast. Herman Schultz, Heinrich d'Arrest and Basilius von Engelhardt measured accurate micrometric positions.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/8/88): fairly faint, fairly small, round, weak concentration. Located within the NGC 182 group with NGC 200 6' NNE.

600/800mm - 24" (12/12/17): at 200x; fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated, 60"x50", large bright core. Slightly higher surface brightness than NGC 200 6' NNE. Two mag 12 stars 3.5' N and 4.5' N are collinear with the galaxy. A mag 9.9 star is 5.3' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb