William Herschel noticed NGC 7770 on 18 Sep 1784 (sweep 277) in his discovery of NGC 7771. He commented, "towards the sp part [of NGC 7771] seems to be a vS stellar nebula within the nebulosity of the large one, but it may be only a small star." Due to his uncertainty he didn't assign NGC 7770 an internal discovery number or H-designation, so received no later credit.

John Herschel independently found this galaxy on 25 Aug 1827 while observing NGC 7771. His description on sweep 91 reads, "pB; E; bM; has a vS almost stellar nebula about 45° sp, dist 40"." On the following sweep, he made a sketch and noted "... has a smaller neb, 60° sp, 35" dist." Wolfgang Steinicke mentions that JH used object class "N2" (two nebulae), so it's surprising he didn't assign NGC 7770 a separate designation in the Slough or General Catalog. As a result, JH received no credit in the GC or NGC.

George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 7770 agaom on 5 Nov 1850 while observing NGC 7769 and 7771. A sketch of the trio was included in the 1861 publication (NGC 7770 is labeled Gamma). A more accurate sketch from 1855 is on plate V of the 1880 publication. Lord Rosse is credited with the discovery of NGC 7770 in the GC and NGC.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/9/83): very faint, very small, round. Forms a close pair with NGC 7771 1' SSE.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/31/86): fairly faint, slightly elongated, brighter core. Forms a double system with much brighter NGC 7771 just 1.1' NNE in the NGC 7769 group.

600/800mm - 24" (10/5/13): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 5:3 SSW-NNE, 0.5'x0.3', contains a small bright core. Forms a close pair with much larger NGC 7771, 1.1' NNE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb