NGC 434A appeared extremely faint, very small, round, 12", very low surface brightness. This galaxy is a thin edge-on with very faint curving arms similar to the Integral Sign galaxy, but only the core was noticed. NGC 434A is the faintest in the trio.

John Herschel discovered NGC 434 = h2392 on 28 Oct 1834 and logged "B, R, psbM, 40" dia." His position is accurate (2 sweeps). Joseph Turner observed the pair of the NGCs on 14 Jan 1879 with the Great Melbourne Telescope and commented that NGC 434 was "considerably elongated" and not round as Herschel described.

600/800mm - 25" (10/15/17 - OzSky): at 397x; bright, moderately large, oval 4:3 or 3:2 N-S, ~1.25'x0.9'. Sharply concentrated with a bright, elongated core enclosing a round, intensely bright nucleus. The halo has a subtle but definite uneven surface brightness. NGC 434 is the brightest in a trio (KTS 8) with NGC 440 5' SE and NGC 434A 3.2' NE. A mag 11.8 star is midway between NGC 434 and 440. Located 37' SSE of mag 6.4 HD 7082.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb