Lewis Swift discovered NGC 27 = Sw. I-1 on 3 Aug 1884 with a 16" refractor at Warner Observatory and recorded as "vvF; vS; E; B* nr." His position matches UGC 96 = PGC 742.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/8/94): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 WNW-ESE, 1.0'x0.4', broad concentration to a brighter core. Located 1.5' N of mag 9.5 SAO 73786. A wide pair of mag 13.5 stars are 1.4' NNW and 2.0' NNW. Forms a pair with UGC 105 10' SE. Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae, V = 2.1) lies 28' WNW.

17.5" (10/17/87): faint, small, roundish, very small brighter core. Situated between two mag 13 and 14 stars.

600/800mm - 24" (8/25/19): at 324x; moderately bright and large, oval 2:1 WNW-ESE, ~0.9'x0.4'. Contains a round, small bright core that gradually increased to a slightly brighter stellar nucleus. A mag 10.5 star is 1.6' S.

NGC 27 forms a close pair with superthin galaxy UGC 95 just 1.5' SW. At 225x and 324x it appeared as a moderately large, thin ghostly sliver, ~10:1 N-S, 1.0'x0.1'. The surface brightness was very low and nearly even with only a slightly brighter core. I could often hold it continuously at 225x once acquired.

CGCG 499-70, situated 10' NE, appeared faint, fairly small, very elongated 4:1 WSW-ENE, ~35"x8", low even surface brightness.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb