George Phillips Bond discovered NGC 391 = HN 3 = Au 9 on 8 Jan 1853 with the 15-inch Merz & Mahler refractor while taking micrometric positions of stars for the Harvard Zone Catalogue. He noted a "faint nebula, 1' 30" south following star number 32 [11th magnitude]." At this exact position is UGC 693 = PGC 3976. Auwers included Bond's discovery in his 1862 Catalogue of new nebulae, before the GC was published.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/30/91): fairly faint, very small, round, compact, well-defined edge, small bright core. Located 1.7' SSE of a mag 10 star and 4.4' NNE of mag 9.5 SAO 109686.

600/800mm - 24" (11/21/19): at 322x; between fairly faint and moderately bright, fairly small, round, 24" diameter, very small bright core increasing to a bright stellar nucleus. Situated within a group of stars including a mag 10.7 star 1.7' NNW.

UGC 695, situated 10' NE, appeared

Notes by Steve Gottlieb