William Herschel discovered NGC 6278 = H III-124 on 15 May 1784 (sweep 217) and logged "vF, stellar, 240 verified it." His position (copied into the GC) is 25 seconds of RA too large. The discovery was on the first night he experimented using a "front-view", observing at the edge of the tube without use of a secondary. Stephan found the galaxy again on 13 July 1871 and reported St II-12 as new, along with NGC 6276 and NGC 6277. Stephan's position (used in the NGC) is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" fairly faint, small, dominated by a very small bright core with stellar nucleus, faint halo elongated NW-SE. Close pair with NGC 6276 2.3' NW.

600/800mm - 24" (9/5/18): at 375x; bright, fairly large, oval 5:3 NW-SE, ~1.2'x0.7', sharply concentrated with a very bright core that increases to a sharp stellar nucleus. The halo has a fairly low even surface brightness. Third and brightest in a trio (WBL 629) with NGC 6276 2.4' NW and UGC 10650 10' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb