Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 2735 = St IX-18 on 26 Feb 1878 using the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory and recorded as "small star enveloped in a vF, vS neby, lE E-W." His position is exactly 1.0 tmin of RA east of UGC 4744 although his offset star is correctly placed. The error was caught and corrected by Esmiol in his re-reduction of Stephan's position.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/6/91): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 E-W. There are four bright stars to the south. Three of these stars oriented WSW-ENE form a shallow arc; mag 10 star 1.6' S, mag 9.1 SAO 80591 3.2' SW, mag 9.0 SAO 80590 4.6' SW. Also mag 7.2 SAO 80592 lies 5' SSW (2' S of SAO 80591).

600/800mm - 24" (3/22/14): moderately bright and large, very elongated 3:1 E-W, 0.9'x0.3', contains a bright elongated core. Forms a close pair (VV 40 = Arp 287) with NGC 2735A = PGC 25402 just 45" ENE of center, but detached. At 375x, the companion appeared very faint and small, round, only 10"-12" diameter. Situated 4.9' NNE of mag 7.3 HD 77313, along with three mag 9-10 stars even closer.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb