The companion appeared very faint, fairly small, weak concentration, very low surface brightness diffuse glow. Collinear with mag 8.8 SAO 145403 2.7' N and a mag 11 star 6.0' N. Also a mag 11 star is 3.1' E and mag 7.6 SAO 45409 is 6.3' E! Close to the mag 11 star that follows are two fainter mag 13 and 14 stars.

Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 7065 = St VIII-12 (first list) on 24 and 25 Aug 1865 and his discovery positions match MCG -01-54-017 = PGC 66766. Stephan independently discovered MCG -01-54-017 on 22 Sep 1876. His micrometric position is very accurate. Albert Marth first observed the field on 3 Aug 1864 and noted "eF, irr R." for m 440. But Marth's position matches MCG -01-54-018 = PGC 66774, which is often identified as NGC 7065A. Dreyer assumed d'Arrest's object was the same as Marth's and used d'Arrest's micrometric position in the NGC (Stephan was not credited). He noted in the description, though, that Marth's RA was 13 seconds larger. For comparison, here are the positions for 2000:

21 26 42.4 -06 59 43 NGC 7065 = MCG -01-54-017 = PGC 66766

21 26 45.7 -06 59 41 d'Arrest (mean of 2 positions)

21 26 43.3 -06 59 46 Stephan

21 26 42.9 -06 59 48 Esmiol's re-reduction

21 26 57.8 -07 01 18 NGC 7065A = MCG -01-54-018 = PGC 66774

21 26 58 -07 02 Marth

So, while d'Arrest and Stephan discovered NGC 7065, Marth apparently discovered NGC 7065A, a larger, lower surface brightness companion 4' southeast. Interestingly, all three observers only found a single galaxy, though both MCG galaxies were observed in my 17.5" and fairly similar in ease of visibility. So, NGC 7065A should have received a separate NGC number -- unless Marth's position was very poor, and coincidentally matches NGC 7065A. The RNGC positions for both galaxies are 2' too far south (see my RNGC Corrections #4). See Harold Corwin's identification notes for more.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/15/90): fairly faint, extremely small, round, bright stellar nucleus or star superimposed, just non-stellar (only core visible). Located 4.7' WSW of mag 8.8 SAO 45403 and 10.3' W of mag 7.6 SAO 45409. Forms a pair with NGC 7065A 4.2' ESE.

600/800mm - 24" (9/27/19): at 225x and 375x; fairly faint, small, round, 24" diameter, dominated by a sharp stellar nucleus with a very low surface brightness halo. Checking the SDSS, a star is superimposed very close west of the nucleus!

NGC 7065A, located 4' ESE, appeared

Notes by Steve Gottlieb