William Herschel discovered NGC 748 = H III-193 = h176 on 20 Sep 1784 (sweep 280) and reported "eF, verified with 240 power with difficulty, near a small star". His position was well off in RA, but John Herschel measured an accurate position on two consecutive sweeps in October 1827.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/23/92): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:3 NW-SE, 1.0'x0.6', small bright core, stellar nucleus. Located 1.9' SE of a mag 10.5 star and the galaxy is elongated in the direction of the star.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb