William Herschel discovered NGC 7691 = H III-213 = h2250 on 16 Oct 1784 (sweep 294) and recorded "eF, cL, between 2 pB stars but a little north of them. 240 verified it." John Herschel made the single observation "eF; pL; forms a triangle with 2 st 10m, near it". Curiously, this object was not found on 4 attempts in 1856-57 with Lord Rosse's 72" and d'Arrest found it "hard to understand" (gloating?) after 2 successful observations at Copenhagen with the 11" refractor. It was observed at Birr Castle in a final attempt by Dreyer in 1876.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/19/90): faint, fairly small, almost round, diffuse, low surface brightness. The galaxy forms the vertex of an obtuse triangle with a mag 10.5 star 1.3' SSW and a mag 11.5 star 1.7' E. The two stars detracted from viewing.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb