Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 7265 = St VIII-14 on 20 Sep 1876. His micrometric position is a perfect match with UGC 12004.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/13/01): moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated. Contains a bright, 30" core embedded in a fainter halo extended NNW-SSE, 1.0'x0.8'. The core increases to a faint, stellar nucleus. Brightest in a group and forms a pair with UGC 12007 2.8' ESE. Located 1.3' NNW of a mag 11.5 star.

17.5" (8/12/88): moderately bright, fairly small, round, bright core, stellar nucleus. A mag 11.5 star is 1.3' SSE. Brightest in a group including NGC 7263, NGC 7264, NGC 7273, NGC 7274 and 7276.

600/800mm - 24" (9/14/12): at 325x, fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated N-S, 1.2'x1.0', well concentrated with a small bright core. A mag 12 star lies 1.4' SSE, a mag 12.5 star 1.5' SE (12" pair), a mag 12 star is 2.4' ESE and a mag 10 star is 3' ESE.

Brightest in a group of at least 9 galaxies, which were all viewed (USGC U813). In the eyepiece, it's part of a small quartet with UGC 12007 2.8' ESE (attached to the mag 10 star), PGC 214824 2.5' NW and PGC 214825 3.0' NE. NGC 7273, 7274 and 7276 are roughly 20' ESE and NGC 7263 and 7264 lie ~12' NNW. In addition, PGC 2075294 is 11' ESE and UGC 12013 is 12' SE. UGC 12007 is faint to fairly faint, moderately large, roundish, roughly 45" diameter. View hampered by a mag 10 star superimposed just NE of center. In addition a mag 12 star is just off the NW side, though the halo has a very low surface brightness and fades into the glare from the stars. Contains a very small weakly brighter core just SW of the mag 10 star. PGC 214824 is faint, small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 15"x10". A mag 14 star is attached at the north edge and the faint glow extends just south. PGC 214825 is faint, small, slightly elongated E-W, 0.3'x0.2'. Visible continuously at 325x. UGC 12013 is fairly faint, fairly small, very elongated 3:1 WNW-ESE, 0.6'x0.2'. A mag 13.2 star is just east of the ESE tip.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb