Albert Marth discovered NGC 297 = m 19 on 27 Sep 1864 with Lassell's 48" on Malta and simply noted "eF". His position is 2 sec of RA west and 1' S of much brighter m 20 = NGC 298, discovered at the same time. It's possible that Marth confused a close, faint double situated 2' S of NGC 298 as a nebula. But 1.3' SW of NGC 298 at 00 54 58.9 -07 20 59 (2000) is a nearly stellar galaxy, described here, which is a more likely candidate. In any case, NGC 297 is not identical to NGC 298 as stated in the RNGC. See Corwin's notes.

400/500mm - 18" (11/22/03): this extremely faint and tiny galaxy was a marginal object at 257x, barely glimpsed several times as a fleeting quasi-stellar spot just 1.3' SW of NGC 298. If this observation is valid, this is one of the faintest NGC galaxies I've recorded.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb