George Johnstone Stoney, LdR's assistant, discovered NGC 382 on 4 Nov 1850. It was labeled "Gamma prime" in his sketch of the Pisces Group. Heinrich d'Arrest independently found this nebula on 26 Aug 1865 with the 11-inch Fraunhofer refractor in Copenhagen. This is one of 5 galaxies discovered by Stoney on that night including NGCs 384, 385, 386 and 388.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/29/84): very faint, extremely small, round. Nearly attached to NGC 383.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/23/00): very faint, extremely small, round, 20" diameter, very faint quasi-stellar nucleus at moments. Viewed SN 2000dk, just 5 days after discovery on 9/18/00, as a mag 15.5 "star" at the NW edge of the halo. At the first glance using 280x, the galaxy appeared elongated in the direction of the SN, but in moments of better seeing, the SN was clearly resolved and similar in brightness to the nucleus of NGC 382. This galaxy is the fainter of a close pair with NGC 383 in the Pisces group.

17.5" (9/19/87): faint, very small, round. Forms a double system with much brighter NGC 383 30" NNE in a group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb