John Herschel discovered NGC 7176 = h3911 on 23 Sep 1834 (sweep 492) and recorded "B; R; pgbM; 40"." Two nights later (sweep 493) he logged "vB; pL; sbM to a star; has a very faint star sp." His position (measured on 6 sweeps and sketched on plate IV, fig 11) matches ESO 466-041 = HCG 90B. The "faint star" on sweep 493 is NGC 7174 - recorded as a nebula on sweep 495. Both Joseph Turner and Pietro Baracchi sketched the group using the 48" Melbourne telescope but the prepared drawing (plate VI, figure 66) was not pubished.

200/250mm - 8" (7/24/82): faint, small. Component of an unresolved pair with NGC 7174.

300/350mm - 13.1" (7/27/84): faint, small, round, similar to NGC 7173 1.5' NW. Forms a contact pair with NGC 7174 at the SW edge in the NGC 7172 group = HCG 90.

400/500mm - 18" (10/21/06): slightly brighter than NGC 7173. Appears bright, moderately large, round, 1.1' diameter. Sharply concentrated with a very bright 30" core that increases to a stellar nucleus. Forms an interacting double system (merged) with NGC 7174 (elliptical/spiral pair) attached to the SW side.

18" (9/3/05): fairly bright, moderately large, 1' diameter, well concentrated with a bright, very small nucleus. This is the most obvious (along with NGC 7172) in a quartet comprising HCG 90. NGC 7174 is attached at the west edge.

600/800mm - 24" (8/23/14): at 375x appeared very bright, moderately large, round, 1.0' diameter, intense core that increases to the center, which contains a bright, stellar nucleus. NGC 7174, with an elongated, irregular shape, is merged with NGC 7176 on the southwest side, and the combination forms a striking triple with NGC 7173 1.5' northwest. ESO 466-046 lies 7.5' due east. This edge-on galaxy appeared extremely faint, fairly small, very elongated 4:1 SSW-NNE, 0.6'x0.15'. A mag 15 star is off the southeast end.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb