Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 7477 on 9 Sep 1866 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen. At his exact position is a group of 3 faint stars and an extremely faint galaxy (LEDA 1245518). Probably d'Arrest picked up the combined glow of a faint star and the galaxy (V = 15.0) or else two close stars. Hermann Kobold's position, measured in 1898 at the Stasbourg Observatory, is at the north end of LEDA 1245518, where a faint star is attached. Reinmuth also identified NGC 7477 as "4 st 15 in Dreyer's place; ? eeF vS neb s of 2nd * alm att?, neb E 75 deg?."

Burnham noted the odd situation that NGC 7477 and 7472 precede Marth's NGC 7482 by exactly 1.0 tmin and 2.0 tmin of RA, respectively, and felt all 3 numbers referred to the same galaxy. But Harold Corwin notes that only NGC 7472 (discovered by Otto Struve) is identical to NGC 7482.

400/500mm - 18" (9/26/11): this number applies to an extremely faint galaxy with a star superimposed. At 175x, it appeared as a faint, nebulous patch (perhaps 15" diameter) with one or two very faint stars involved. At 225x, three mag 14.5 stars were resolved including a 15" pair but a third star close north was not involved in the glow. It was easy to see to see how this knot of stars could be taken as nebulous even if the galaxy was not seen. NGC 7482 lies 15' ESE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb