Lewis Swift discovered NGC 768 = Sw. III-8 on 2 Dec 1885 with the 16" refractor at Warner Observatory. His position was 18 seconds east and 1' S of UGC 1457 = PGC 7465, but his description "B * 32 seconds following" applies to this galaxy. Swift found the galaxy again on 2 Oct 1886 and reported Sw. V-18 as "eF; pS; R; B * 30s f and 1' s." His second position was just 40" northwest of center. The equivalence was suggested by Frank Muller in an 1887 Sidereal Messenger article on duplicate entries by Swift, but Harold Corwin mentions that Swift's second observation is sometimes taken to be IC 1761, which is less than 4' northeast NGC 768.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/8/90): extremely faint, very small, round. Located 8' W of mag 8.2 SAO 110258.

600/800mm - 24" (12/22/14): fairly faint to moderately bright, elongated at least 2:1 SSW-NNE, 40"x18", brighter along a the major axis (elongated core or bar?). A mag 15.7 star is 50" E of center and a mag 14.5 star is 2' NE. IC 1761 lies 3.7' NE, with the mag 14.5 star nearly at the midpoint. IC 1761 appeared faint to fairly faint, small, round 12" diameter (only the core seen with certainty).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb