Truman Safford discovered NGC 769 = Sf 68 on 9 Nov 1866 with the 18.5" refractor at the Dearborn Observatory and recorded "S, pF, irr figure, gbM." Édouard Stephan (XII-20) independently found the galaxy on 5 Nov 1882 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory and Dreyer credits Stephan with the discovery in the NGC as Safford's list was not published until 1887, too late for Dreyer to see while compiling the NGC.

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/22/84): fairly faint, elongated WSW-ENE, fairly even surface brightness. A mag 13 star is on the east edge 30" from the center. Located about 30' SSW of NGC 772.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb