John Herschel discovered NGC 6870 = h3815 on 7 Jul 1834 and recorded "F; pmE in parallel; gbM; 30" l." His position is accurate.

200/250mm - 8" (7/13/91 - Southern Baja): extremely faint, small, oval 2:1 WSW-ENE. Forms a pair with NGC 6868 6.2' SSW.

400/500mm - 18" (7/10/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): last in a trio with NGC 6868 6' SSW and ESO 233-035 7.5' W within the core of the Telescopium Group (ACO S851). At 128x it appeared moderately bright, very elongated 5:2 E-W, ~1.5'x0.6', with a bright core.

ESO 233-037 appeared fairly faint, small, elongated NW-SE, 0.5'x0.3' with a small bright core. Forms the NW vertex of a near equilateral triangle with NGC 6868 7' SE and NGC 6870 7.5' E. A mag 10.6 star lies 6' W.

600/800mm - 30" (10/18/17 - OzSky): at 264x and 429x; bright, large, very elongated 5:2 E-W, ~1.5'x0.6'. Strong concentration with a very bright elongated core. Forms a striking pair in the Telescopium Group (ACO S851) with NGC 6868 6.2' SSW. NGC 6861F, located 10' E, appeared very faint, moderately large, very elongated 7:2 E-W, very low surface brightness with no concentration, ~0.9'x0.25'.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb