John Herschel discovered NGC 7650 = h3989 on 28 Oct 1834, along with NGC 7652, and recorded "pB; R; glbM; 40"; the preceding of 2 [with NGC 7652]." His position (measured on 2 sweeps) is accurate.

600/800mm - 30" (10/15/15 - OzSky): at 303x; fairly bright, fairly large, slightly elongated, 1.0'x0.9', appears brighter along a central bar oriented E-W. A spiral arm is just visible on the north side and containing a bright HII knot (or companion?) at its northern end. Brightest in a trio (KTS 73) with NGC 7652 6.2' SSE and NGC 7657 11.5' ESE. I also picked up PGC 384902 4.2' SSW. It appeared very faint (B = 16.7), very small, 10" with possible extensions SW-NE increasing the size to 20"x10", low surface brightness. This background galaxy has a light-travel time of ~960 million years.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb