John Herschel discovered NGC 439 = h2394 (along with NGC 441 = h2395) on 27 Sep 1834 and logged "pB, R, bM, 20 arcseconds." His mean position from 2 sweeps is accurate.

200/250mm - 8" (1/1/84): very faint, small, round. Can just hold steadily with averted vision. A mag 8 star is 10' SW.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/6/93): fairly faint, moderately large, elongated 4:3 NNW-SSE, 1.5'x1.2', broad concentration. A mag 13.5 star is 2.3' SW and a mag 14 star is 2.2' SE of center. Brighter of a pair with NGC 441 2.5' SSE. Located 11' NE of mag 8.2 SAO 192988. This is the brightest member of ACO S141.

600/800mm - 24" (9/15/12): at 175x appeared fairly bright, moderately large, oval 4:3 NNW-SSE, 1.5'x1.2', increases to a bright core.

NGC 439 is the brightest in the cluster ACO S141 = Klemola 1 with NGC 441 2.6' SSE, MCG -05-04-018 7' SE and a trio of MCGs (-011/-012/-013) 5' SW. MCG -05-04-018 appeared fairly faint, fairly small, oval 3:2 E-W, 24"x16" and the small trio of MCGs were all between extremely faint and very faint, round, 12" to 18" diameter.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb