R.J. Mitchell, LdR's assistant, discovered NGC 394 on 26 Oct 1854. His described GC 212 (later NGC 392) as "B, S, R, bM. [John Herschel] described it as between 2 stars. I think the northernmost one is a nebula [NGC 394] of same character but smaller." There are two entries for this galaxy in the GC, the second (GC 215) refers to Heinrich d'Arrest's independent discovery on 22 Aug 1862. d'Arrest recognized his object was first seen at Parsonstown in a note in his 1865 catalogue. Dreyer combined the two GC entries in the NGC with credit given to both d'Arrest and LdR.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/23/89): faint, small, oval NW-SE, small brighter core. In a group with NGC 392 1' SW and NGC 397 3' SSE.

600/800mm - 24" (10/5/13): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 0.4'x0.2', small brighter core. Second brightest in a small triplet (KTG 3) with brighter NGC 392 1.0' SW and NGC 397 2.6' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb