Christian Peters discovered NGC 7688 on 13 Oct 1865 with the 13.5-inch refractor at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, while searching for Biela's Comet. Otto Struve independently discovered this galaxy a few months later on 12 Dec 1865 (also searching for the comet) with the 38-cm refractor at the Pulkovo Observatory at St. Petersburg. Struve noted a mag 14 star in PA 201° at a separation of 80", which pins down this identification. Peters' discovery was not published until his 1882 list in Copernicus, so Dreyer credited Struve in the GC Supplement (6206). Both are listed in the NGC.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/23/89): faint, small, round. A mag 14 star is 1.4' SSW of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb