John Herschel discovered NGC 427 = h2390 on 25 Sep 1834 and recorded "Rather doubtful, but I strongly incline to the suspicion of its being a vF neb with 2 vS stars near it". On a second sweep (#635) he noted "I believe it only 3 vF st, but yet there remains a suspicion of nebulosity." His position is just 1.3' S of ESO 412-014, despite the uncertain observations.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/4/97): extremely faint, very small, round, 20" diameter (only core viewed?). Required averted vision and GSC finder chart to identify at 280x. Located in a sparse field. A couple of very faint nearby stars were not recorded.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb