John Herschel discovered NGC 7174 = h3910 on 28 Sep 1834 and recorded "in sweep 493 this was taken for a vF star, but I now perceive it plainly to a small faint round nebula." His position and sketch matches ESO 466-040 = HCG 90D.

The RNGC reverses the identifications of NGC 7173 and 7174, making NGC 7173 and 7176 the contact pair. This misidentification is listed in my RNGC Corrections #1.

300/350mm - 13.1" (7/27/84): fairly faint, small. Virtually in contact with NGC 7176 on the NE edge 26" separation. In a compact trio with NGC 7173 1.3' NW in the NGC 7172 group. The identifications of NGC 7173 and NGC 7174 are reversed in the RNGC.

400/500mm - 18" (10/21/06): this is the western component of an interacting system with NGC 7176 attached to the east side. At 225x appears fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 E-W, 1.0'x0.4, very weak concentration, no noticeable core.

18" (9/3/05): fairly faint, fairly small, very elongated 3:1 E-W, 0.9'x0.3'. This member of the HCG 90 quartet is attached at the west edge of NGC 7176 and extends due west. The identifications of NGC 7173 and NGC 7174 are reversed in the RNGC.

600/800mm - 24" (8/23/14): at 375x, NGC 7174 was elongated perhaps 3:1 E-W, 0.9'x0.3'. The surface brightness is irregular with no core region. The galaxy appears to taper and brighten at the west end with a bend or short kink angling northwest. The east end merges into the halo of NGC 7176 on the its southwest end!

Notes by Steve Gottlieb