William Herschel discovered NGC 7309 = H II-476 = h2167 on 28 Nov 1785 (sweep 479) and recorded "F, pL, iR, lbM." JH made 5 observations, first reporting it on 9 Sep 1825 (sweep 9) as "F; R; vgbM; r; 2'." R.J. Mitchell, observing at Birr Castle on 2 Oct 1856, reported "has a * near center and I suspect a * or knot in np edge [spiral arm at this end]."

Heber Curtis described the photograhic appearance in 1913 based on Crossley plates at Lick as "a small nebula about 1.5' in size, of very unusual form. Has faint stellar nucleus; ther are three fainter nuclei from which spring short whorls [spiral arms]; these are not arranged as in an ordinary spiral, but overlap." At the Helwan observatory in Egypt, it was described (1921) as a "3 branched spiral with sharp stellar nucleus. The north branch starts from a faint almost stellar condensation just n.f. the nucleus. The branch just south of the nucleus forms an oval around it, much brighter on the south side. The third branch is also south and curiously broken in the middle."

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): faint, moderately large, very diffuse, slightly elongated ~E-W, even surface brightness.

600/800mm - 24" (8/14/15): moderately bright and large, irregular shape, slightly elongated, ~1.0'x0.8', contains a small bright core. A fairly thin spiral arm juts out to the west on the north end. On the DSS, this spiral has a second strong arm off the south end, extending east, though this arm was difficult to distinguish.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb