John Herschel discovered NGC 7070 = h3866, along with NGC 7072, on 5 Sep 1834 and recorded "F, L, vlE, vglbM, 2' broad, the preceding of two [with NGC 7072]." On a later sweep he called it "F, pL, lE, gvlbM, 1'." His mean position is accurate.

400/500mm - 18" (10/16/09): very faint, very low surface brightness patch with no concentration. Requires averted to glimpse a 1' hazy glow with no definite edge. First and largest in a trio with NGC 7072 4.5' SE and NGC 7070A 21' NE. The observation was affected by the low elevation of this group, though this may be a very diffuse galaxy.

600/800mm - 30" (10/14/15 - OzSky): at 303x; fairly prominent due to large size but overall modest surface brightness. Appears as a large cottony oval SSW-NNE, ~1.7'x1.4'. There appeared to be a brighter bar in the center oriented E-W and a strong suggestion of structure in the outer halo. Either a stellar knot or a star appeared superimposed just on the west side of the weak "bar" (Carnegie-Irvine image shows this to be a star) and the halo contained some slightly brighter regions or knots. NGC 7072 lies 4.5' SSE and NGC 7072A is 7' due south.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb