William Herschel discovered NGC 7550 = H III-181 = h2219 on 18 Sep 1784 (sweep 277) and recorded "vF, vS, R, 240 confirmed it. His position is 34 sec of RA too large (noted by Dreyer in his 1912 "Scientific Papers of WH"). JH measured an accurate position for this galaxy and listed it as h2219 with description "pB; R; 20", the sf of 2 [with NGC 7547]", although due to his father's poor position, he thought it was new.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/7/96): moderately bright, fairly small, halo elongated 4:3 N-S, 1.5'x1.2', sharply concentrated with a round, bright core and nearly stellar nucleus. Brightest in the HCG 93 quintet. HCG 94 lies only 32' SE!

17.5" (9/23/89): brightest in a group of 11 NGC galaxies and HCG 93. Moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated ~N-S, small bright core, stellar nucleus. Forms a triple system with NGC 7549 4.8' N and NGC 7547 3.0' W. Also nearby is NGC 7558 5.9' ENE.

600/800mm - 24" (12/28/13 and 9/27/19): at 282x appeared fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated, 0.9'x0.75', strongly concentrated with a very bright, prominent core that increased to a sharp stellar nucleus. Brightest in the HCG 93 quintet with NGC 7547 3.1' WNW and NGC 7549 4.9' N.

24" (12/1/13): at 375x appeared moderately bright to fairly bright, moderately large, irregularly round, 1.0'x0.8', strongly concentrated with a bright core that increases to a very bright small nucleus. Occasionally, a bright stellar nuclear pip was visible within the small nucleus. Brightest in the HCG 93 quintet.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb