William Herschel discovered NGC 7563 = H III-222 = h2223 on 19 Oct 1784 (sweep 299) and recorded "Two [along with NGC 7559 = III-221], eF, R, S, both alike." He found the galaxy again on 23 Nov 1785 (sweep 476) and noted "vF, S." JH made 4 observations and remarked (sweep 15), "pB; S; R; smbM; a B * near; the s f of 2 [with NGC 7559]."

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/23/89): faint, small, slightly elongated, small bright core, stellar nucleus. Located 2.3' WNW of a mag 10 star. Pair with NGC 7559 6.1' NNW.

600/800mm - 24" (8/30/16): at 375x; moderately bright, fairly small, contains a small bright round core with very faint extensions (bar) E-W. A very low surface brightness halo is elongated 2:1 NW-SE (clearly offset the axis of the "bar"), ~1.2'x0.6'. A group of stars is close east including a mag 10.5 star 2.2' ESE. NGC 7559 (double) lies 6.2' NNW. The trio lies at a distance of 200 million l.y.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb