John Herschel discovered NGC 7300 = h2164 on 26 Jul 1830 and recorded "F; pL; a strong suspicion; almost sure." The next night he logged "vF; R; vglbM; 20"; twilight commencing." His position is just off the south side of MCG -02-57-011 = PGC 69040. This galaxy was found at Birr Castle on 4 Nov 1850 and described as "a vF neb, 80" long, 10" broad, light seems equable." With a rough position JH catalogued the Rosse "nova" as GC 4799, but Dreyer realized its equivalence with h2164 and assigned only a single NGC designation.

Harold Corwin suggests Lewis Swift's list XI, #212 (later IC 5204) found on 8 Aug 1896, is probably a duplicate of NGC 7300 despite a very poor position. Swift's description reads "vF; eE; a ray; p of 2 [with IC 5228 = NGC 7302]. See Corwin's identification notes.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): very faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NNW-SSE, low surface brightness. Forms a pair with NGC 7298 11.3' SSW. NGC 7302 lies 24' ESE.

600/800mm - 24" (9/25/19): at 375x; moderately bright and large, very elongated 3:1 NNW-SSE, 1.2'x0.4', broad concentration with a brighter elongated core. In a group (LGG 458) with NGC 7302 22' SE and NGC 7298 11' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb