Auguste Voigt discovered NGC 7242 = St V-7 in 1865 with the 31-inch silver-on-glass Marseille reflector. He didn't publish a discovery list so was not credited in the NGC but his position matches UGC 11969. Voigt missed the fainter members of the group including NGC 7240. Édouard Stephan independently discovered the galaxy again using the same telescope on 24 Sep 1873 and described it as "F; vS; diffuse; slbM; a faint star projecting." His position is very accurate. At the same time Stephan discovered fainter NGC 7240. The RNGC photographic description "ALMSTEL" does not apply.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): brightest in a group. Faint, moderately large, slightly elongated, NGC 7240 3.5' W, IC 5191 7' W. Located 30' S of a mag 4 star.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/15/93): brightest in a group of 7 galaxies. Fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 SW-NE, bright core. A mag 13.5 star is at the south edge of halo 40" S of center. Two mag 14 stars are 1.1' WSW and 1.5' ENE from the center. IC 5195, an extremely faint stellar companion, is superimposed at the northeast tip. It appeared like a mag 16 "star" and was visible less than one-quarter of the time. Nearby are NGC 7240 3.5' WSW, IC 1441 4.0' W, IC 5193 3.5' SSE, IC 5192 5.3' WSW and IC 5191 7' W. See their entries for notes.

17.5" (7/28/92): fairly faint, moderately large, elongated 2:1 SW-NE. A mag 13 star is off the SE side of nucleus. A group of 10 faint stars to the east appears like a faint open cluster. Brightest of four galaxies in tight group including NGC 7240 3.5' WSW, IC 1441 4' W, IC 5191 7' W.

600/800mm - 24" (8/13/15): brightest in a group of 8 galaxies. At 375x appeared fairly bright, moderately large, oval 3:2 SW-NE, ~0.9'x0.6', large bright core ~30" diameter.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb