William Herschel discovered NGC 210 = H II-452 = h46 on 3 Oct 1785 (sweep 451) and recorded "pB, pS, mbM, resolvable, star 1.5' distant". His position is 30 tsec too far west.

R.J. Mitchell, LdR's observer on 7 Dec 1857, logged "bright centre; much elongated north and south, arms vF." Francis Leavenworth independently found the galaxy on 2 Oct 1886 at the Leander-McCormick Observatory and included it in the LM first discovery list (#11).

200/250mm - 8" (10/13/81): faint, small, round. A mag 9 star is 7' W.

300/350mm - 13.1" (8/24/84): fairly bright, fairly small, slightly elongated ~NNW-SSE, small very bright core. A mag 11.5 star is close WSW [1.3' from the center]. Located 7' E of mag 8.3 SAO 147392. Forms a pair with MCG -02-02-082 7.7' NE (not seen).

600/800mm - 24" (11/21/19): at 322x; the central region is bright, moderately large, oval 5:3 ~N-S, 1.2'x0.7'. Contains an intense roundish core that gradually increases to the center. With averted vision, a very large, low surface brightness halo - more easily visible on the south side - increased the size dramatically to nearly 4'x2'. Often the halo seemed like a ring as there was a dip in brightness surrounding the brilliant central region. The halo passes through a mag 12.6 star on the west side [1.2' from center].

Notes by Steve Gottlieb