William Herschel discovered NGC 2554 = H II-303 = h497 on 28 Feb 1785 (sweep 374) and recorded "F, S, mbM, r." On 11 Jan 1787 (sweep 683) he noted "eF, vS, near some vF stars; may be a patch of a few extr small stars." On 10 Feb 1787 (sweep 697), he logged "pF, S, mbM, irr R." On 24 Feb 1827 (sweep 59), John Herschel logged "pB, R, bM" but his position was 1.0 minute of time too far east and this error was repeated in the GC and finally the NGC. Dreyer corrected the RA in the IC 2 notes.

Five observations of the galaxy were made with LdR's 72". Bindon Stoney recorded on 9 Mar 1852: "R, bMNucl, 2 st 14m nf and sf, a vS * preceding about the same dist." Interestingly, the "vS * preceding" is CGCG 119-032, a faint compact galaxy. At V = 15.6, this is one of the fainter galaxies discovered with the 72" (though of course it was seen as virtually stellar) and took some effort in my 24", knowing the exact position.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/28/92): moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated 4:3 N-S, strongly concentrated with an abrupt well-defined very bright core, sharp stellar nucleus, faint halo with ill-defined edge. Two mag 14 stars are 1.2' SSE and 1.4' NNE of center. Located at the north edge of the Cancer I galaxy cluster. CGCG 119-032 is just 1.5' W but was not noticed.

600/800mm - 24" (2/16/15): at 322x; moderately to fairly bright, moderately large, oval 4:3 NNW-SSE, 1.2'x0.9'. Sharply concentrated with a very bright core that increases to a very small, intense nucleus. A mag 13.5-14 star is barely off the southeast end, 1.2' from center and a comparable star is off the north side, 1.4' from center.

CGCG 119-032 forms the west vertex of an equilateral triangle framing the galaxy with the two nearby stars, and lies just off the west edge [1.4' from center]. At 450x it appeared extremely faint (V = 15.5), round, just 6" diameter. Once identified at high power it was also seen at 322x.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb