John Herschel discovered NGC 7421 = h3964 on 30 Aug 1834 and recorded "B; L; R; gpmbM; 2'; r[esolvable] with right eye; with left, barely resolved in the centre." His mean position (3 measures) is accurate. Harold Knox-Shaw reported it was a spiral in 1912 based on a photograph taken with the 30" reflector at the Helwan Observatory in Egypt. On later photographs in 1919-20 showed the eastern halo suffered from dust obscuration.

200/250mm - 8" (8/16/82): extremely faint, small, round, at visual threshold.

300/350mm - 13.1" (10/20/84): very faint, very diffuse, moderately large. Located 20' SSE of NGC 7418.

400/500mm - 18" (10/25/08): fairly faint, moderately large, ~1.5' diameter, diffuse with only a very weak concentration. At moments I had the impression of an elongated brightening or bar in the central region. Located near the southern end of the Grus Chain of 9 galaxies with NGC 7418 20' NNW and IC 1459 53' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb