Albert Marth discovered NGC 7272 = m 479 on 7 Aug 1864 and noted "vF, S, irr R." His position is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/20/88): very faint, small, round, even surface brightness. Located between two mag 13 stars and a mag 15 star is 30" NW. Neither of the faint companions were noticed.

600/800mm - 24" (8/14/15): at 375x; fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated 4:3 or 5:4 SW-NE, 30"x24", small bright core. A mag 12.5 star lies 1.3' WSW, a mag 13.6 star is the same distance NE and a mag 15.5 star is 40" NW. Brightest in a small triplet with PGC 1511999 just 52" SSW of center and PGC 214829 1.9' NE. PGC 1511999 (V = 15.4) appeared faint, very small, slightly elongated, 15"x12". A mag 12.5 star (mentioned above) lies 1.1' NW and a double star (~10" separation) is 1.6' SE. PGC 214829 (V = 15.6) is very faint to faint, very small, ~12"x8" E-W. A mag 13.5 star lies 50" WSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb