William Herschel discovered NGC 428 = H II-622 on 20 Dec 1786 (sweep 655) and noted "F, R, bM, easily resolvable." Heinrich d'Arrest measured an accurate micrometric position on 30 and 31 Oct 1864.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/86): fairly bright, moderately large, oval ~N-S, weak concentration. A mag 13 star is at the NW edge 1.8' from center. Forms the vertex of an isosceles triangle with two mag 8.5 stars SAO 109728 and SAO 109733 6.0' W and 6.0' NNE, respectively.

600/800mm - 24" (12/22/14): bright, fairly large, elongated 4:3 ~NW-SE, mottled irregular appearance, broad weak concentration. With averted vision the halo increases in size to ~2.5'x2.0'. A quasi-stellar HII region, catalogued in NED as UM 309 NED1 and NGC 428: [HK83] 44-46, occasionally pops as a very small detached knot, ~6" diameter. This is the brightest in a series of blue HII knots on the northwest side of the outer core [45" WNW of center]. NGC 428 forms the southeast vertex of an isosceles triangle with mag 8.7 HD 7208 6' W and mag 8.6 HD 7276 8' NNE. Mag 12.5 stars are 2' NW and 2' SSW [6" pair].

Notes by Steve Gottlieb