Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 540 = LM 1-29 on 15 Oct 1885 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory. There is nothing at his position by ~2 min of RA east and 5' south is ESO 542-012 = PGC 5410. Corwin examined the sketch, but there is only one star shown, so the field cannot be confirmed and identification is uncertain.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/4/97): extremely faint and small, round. Only glimpsed at moments at 280x using a Guide Star Catalog (GSC) finder chart but several times appeared virtually stellar. On two occasions a 20" halo was seen (too faint to determine elongation but extended 2:1 N-S on DSS). A mag 14 star lies 1.3' due north.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb