John Herschel discovered NGC 6771 = h3785, along with NGC 6769 and 6770, on 11 Aug 1836 and logged "eF; 20". The 3rd of 3." His RA is 55 seconds too large (similar offset as the two others). DeLisle Stewart provided an accurate RA (given in the IC 2 Notes), based on plates at Harvard's Arequipa Station in Peru.

400/500mm - 18" (7/9/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): third of three galaxies with NGC 6769 3.5' NW and NGC 6770 3.2' N in a tight trio. Fairly faint, moderately large, elongated 3:1 NW-SE, 1.2'x0.4', small brighter core. Forms the southern vertex of an isosceles triangle with NGC 6769 and NGC 6770.

600/800mm - 25" (10/17/17 - OzSky): at 244x; fairly bright, moderately large, very elongated 4:1 WNW-ESE, ~1.25'x0.3'. Contains a bright, elongated core. Three mag 13.5 stars are close south. Southern member of a triplet with interacting NGC 6769 and 6770 ~3' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb