Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 374 = Au 6 on 7 Oct 1861 with the 11-inch Fraunhofer refractor at the observatory in Copenhagen. His single position is accurate and he noted the nebula was "between 2 stars mag 15." The discovery was early enough to be included in Auwers 1862 list of new nebulae.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/26/92): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NNW-SSE, bright core, faint stellar nucleus or mag 15 star is superimposed [SDSS shows a nucleus]. Located almost midway between two mag 14 stars 0.7' NE and 0.9' SW. Located about 25' N of the core of the NGC 383 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb