William Herschel discovered NGC 7463 = H III-210 = h2202, along with NGC 7465, on 16 Oct 1784 (sweep 294) and recorded "Two, the second of them NGC 7465] stellar, both vF. The first [NGC 7463] lE and a little larger than the second; both vF." Both Herschels missed NGC 7464 (discovered by d'Arrest).

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/22/84): fairly faint, fairly small, diffuse.

13.1" (9/9/83): faint, fairly small, elongated E-W, lower surface brightness than NGC 7464 45" SE.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/14/85): fairly bright, very elongated 3:1 E-W, brighter core but no sharp nucleus. Lower surface brightness than nearby NGC 7465 2.6' ESE. In a close trio with NGC 7465 and NGC 7464 just 42" SE of center. Located 2.5' NE of mag 8.5 SAO 108339. Member of the NGC 7448 group.

900/1200mm - 48" (10/26/16): at 610x; very bright, large, very elongated at least 4:1 E-W, ~2.0'x0.5'. Unusual structure [nearly edge-on barred spiral] with a fairly bright bar angling across the central section ~SW-NE, ~25"x10". A spiral arm extends west of the bar and a long, low surface brightness tidal arm stretches to the east. NGC 7464, situated 0.7' SE, is just south of the beginning of the eastern arm. The stretched appearance is likely due to an interaction with NGC 7465 2.6' SE. These galaxy, as well as the two described below, are part of the NGC 7448 group.

UGC 12321, located 7' NE, appeared fairly faint, thin edge-on 6:1 sliver WSW-ENE, 35"x6", very small brighter core. A 2' length NW-SE string of 3 mag 11.5-12 stars is close south. The middle star is in this string is an uncatalogued double star with a separation of ~1.8". UGC 12313, located 5.5' NNW, appeared very faint to faint, moderately large, edge-on ~4:1 WNW-ESE, 1.2'x0.3', slightly brighter core, fades out at the tips, overall fairly low surface brightness.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb