William Herschel discovered NGC 392 = H II-218 = h87 on 12 Sep 1784 (sweep 268) and simply noted "F, resembling the foregoing [NGC 379, 380, 383]." John Herschel remarked on 16 Nov 1827 (sweep 102), "pF; bM nearly to a *; between 2 stars". Both Herschels missed the nearby galaxies NGC 394 and 397.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/23/89): fairly faint, round, bright core, sharp stellar nucleus. A mag 13 star is 1' SW. Brightest of three (KTG 3) with NGC 394 1' NE and NGC 397 2' SE.

600/800mm - 24" (10/5/13): brightest member of the KTG 3 triplet with NGC 394 1.0' NNE and NGC 397 2.2' SE. At 375x appeared fairly bright, fairly small, slightly elongated SW-NE, 30"x25", increases to a bright stellar nucleus. A mag 13 star lies 1.2' SW. Also recorded IC 1619 13' WSW and UGC 692 15' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb