William Lassell discovered NGC 7285 in Oct 1862 using his 48-inch at Malta. For some reason it wasn't included in Marth's catalogue, although NGC 7489 and NGC 2620, also found by Lassell, were included. Lassell mentioned the discovery in a letter to John Herschel on 1 Nov 1862 and Dreyer included it in the GC Supplement (GCS 5078). Although both William and John Herschel reported a double nuclei or two stars involved, neither catalogued it as two numbers.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/13/90): this is the NE member of a double system with NGC 7284. Fairly faint, very small, slightly elongated, small bright core, stellar nucleus. Slightly fainter than NGC 7284 just 30" WSW of center. Situated very close to the Aquarius-Pisces Austrinus border.

600/800mm - 24" (8/23/14): at 375x, the eastern component of the double system VV 74 = Arp 93 appeared fairly bright, small, elongated 3:2 E-W, 30"x20", high surface brightness. Forms a very close pair with slightly brighter NGC 7284 [just 33" between centers]. The twin nuclei are encased in a very low surface brightness halo

Notes by Steve Gottlieb