Lewis Swift discovered NGC 7459 = Sw. II-97, along with NGC 7452 and 7455, on 14 Oct 1884 and recorded "eeF; pL; R; * nr; sf of 2 [with NGC 7452]." There is nothing at his position, but Harold Corwin suggests this number applies to UGC 12302 (the brightest in the cluster), located 30 sec of RA due west of Swift's position. This identity was first made by Hermann Kobold in his observation at Strasbourg in 1897 (published in 1907). This implies NGC 7452 = PGC 1306660, which is 21 seconds west of his position.

RNGC, MCG and PGC identify UGC 12302 as NGC 7452. UGC does not apply an NGC designation for this double system. RNGC classifies NGC 7459 as nonexistent (Type 7). See Corwin's notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/18/95): very faint, small, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE, 40"x25", weak concentration. Located 1.2' W of a mag 13 star. Forms a pair with NGC 7452 3.1' W. This is a double system (not resolved) and brightest in a faint cluster. Listed as nonexistent in RNGC.

600/800mm - 24" (12/28/13): at 200x appeared fairly faint, fairly small, elongated ~5:3 SW-NE, 0.8'x0.5', brighter core. At 282x, the core appeared double [post merger system?], with the two extremely small nuclei just resolved [10" separation], and oriented along the major axis. The northeast component appeared quasi-stellar. A mag 13.2 star is 1.2' E of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb