William Herschel discovered NGC 7681 = H II-242 = h2247 on 11 Oct 1784 (sweep 274) and recorded "F, vS, irr R, resolvable." His position is good (within 1'). On 29 Nov 1785 (sweep 480), he logged "F, S, lrr E, near and preceding 2 or 3 stars." JH made two observations and noted on sweep 11, "vF; R; gbM; 20" to 30"; near a double star. Bigourdan also measured the position of NGC 7681 as 23 26 21 +17 02 52. All of their positions are in good agreement with UGC 12620.

Despite this match RNGC, RC3, CGCG, UGC notes and NGC 2000 all misidentify CGCG 454-072 as NGC 7681. This galaxy is located 6.2' west-southwest and much fainter than UGC 12620. MCG is the only catalogue to correctly identify NGC 7681. The V magnitude = 14.8 and B = 15.7 in the RC3 is too faint for UGC 7681.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/23/89): faint, very small, round, small prominent core with stellar nucleus. A wide pair of stars mag 11.5 and 13 at 25" separation is 2.5' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb