William Herschel discovered NGC 7559 = H III-221 = h2222 on 19 Oct 1784 (sweep 299) and recorded "Two [along with NGC 7563 = H. III-222], eF, R, S, both alike." He found the galaxy again on 23 Nov 1785 (sweep 476) and noted "vF, S." John Herschel made 4 observations and remarked on sweep 15, "F; R; bM; 30"."

MCG lists the components separately as MCG +02-59-013 = NGC 7559a and MCG +02-59-014 = NGC 7559b, but NED identifies MCG +02-59-014 as NGC 7559A and MCG +02-59-014 as NGC 7559B.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/23/89): fairly faint, fairly small, bright core, oval SW-NE. Forms a pair with NGC 7563 6.1' SSE. This is a double system but the fainter companion was not seen.

600/800mm - 24" (8/30/16): at 375x; moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, 45"x35", small bright core. A mag 15.5 star is 0.8' NE. With averted vision, NGC 7559A = MCG +02-59-014 was seen just off the NNW edge [24" from center]. It appeared extremely faint [V ~15.5] and small, perhaps 8" diameter. On the SDSS this is an edge-on galaxy, but I probably only noticed the brighter nucleus. It was a bit easier to view at 282x. NGC 7563 lies 6.2' SSE. A mag 9.3 star 8.7' SW forms the vertex of an isosceles triangle with NGC 7563 and 7559.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb