Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 7240 = St V-6 on 24 Sep 1873 and recorded "eF, eS, in contact in the north with a very small star." His position matches CGCG 513-022 = PGC 68415. At the same time he found NGC 7242 and assumed it was new, but it Auguste Voigt had discovered it earlier in 1865 also at the Marseille Observatory.

MCG fails to label this galaxy as NGC 7240. RNGC and Dorothy Carlson (in her 1940 list of NGC correction) incorrectly equate NGC 7240 with IC 1441, which is a separate galaxy 1' NNW. Mentioned in Malcolm Thomson's unpublished "Catalogue Corrections".

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): very faint, very small, near visual threshold. Located 3.5' W of NGC 7242 in a compact group.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/15/93): faint, very small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, weak concentration. Situated between a mag 11 star 3.0' NW and three mag 13 stars about 3' SE. Fourth in the compact NGC 7242 group. Forms a tight trio with IC 1441 1.4' NNW and IC 5192 1.7' WSW. Also nearby are NGC 7242 3.5' ENE and IC 5191 4.1' WNW. The observed elongation is probably due to superimposed mag 16 star on the southeast side.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb