James Dunlop discovered NGC 7410 = D 518 = h3960 on 14 July 1826 and recorded "a very faint nebula extended preceding and following, about 1.5' long and 20 or 25 arcseconds broad; a little brighter in the middle, or rather nearer the N.p. extremity; the S.f. extremity is very ill defined." His position is 11' due east of the galaxy. John Herschel first observed this galaxy on 4 Sep 1834 and logged "B, pL, vmE in pos 41.9 degrees, pgmbM, 3' long, 20" broad, has a star 11m, 2' dist, pos from nucleus 12.9°." On a later sweep he wrote "a long pB ray, 4' long, psvmbM, elongated in pos 44.7°." His mean position is accurate.

200/250mm - 8" (7/16/82): faint, moderately large, very elongated SW-NE.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/20/90): fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 3:1 SW-NE, well concentrated to a small very bright core, stellar nucleus. A mag 12 star is 1.8' NNE of center. Appears bright for such a far southern galaxy (observed from +38° latitude).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb