Bindon Stoney, LdR's assistant, discovered NGC 714 on 28 Oct 1850. He recorded "following this last [NGC 709] is one about 11'." R.J. Mitchell independently found NGC 714 on 12 Oct 1855 and noted "about 10' nf the group is a pB, 1L neb, with B Nucl, susp resolvable." Heinrich d'Arrest next found the nebula on 2 Dec 1863 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen and measured an accurate position matching UGC 1358 = PGC 7009. Finally, Lawrence Parsons observed it again on 18 Nov 1876, noting "forming a triangle with 2 stars 13m preceding and north-preceding (perhaps a 3rd star).". In the 1880 publication Dreyer indicated the observation was a duplicate of GC 5197 (d'Arrest). d'Arrest and LdR are attributed with the discovery in the NGC.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/22/84): fairly faint, bright core, edge-on WNW-ESE, two faint stars are close west.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/19/87): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated WNW-ESE, bright core. Two mag 13.5 stars are 1.0' W and 1.4' NW of center. Member of AGC 262.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb