Truman Safford discovered NGC 778 = Sf 64 on 5 Nov 1866 with the 18" refractor at Dearborn Observatory. Édouard Stephan (VIII-7, first list) independently found the galaxy on 17 Nov 1876 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory. As Safford's discovery was not published until the fall of 1887 as the NGC was going to press, Stephan is credited with the discovery in the GC Supplement (5205) and NGC.

300/350mm - 13.1" (8/24/84): faint, very small, slightly elongated. Located within a bright trapezoid formed by two mag 9 stars 7' N and 4.8' NW (SAO 55174), mag 8.5 SAO 55185 3.0' NE and a mag 10.5 star 2.8' WSW. Forms a pair with NGC 777 7' NNW.

600/800mm - 24" (11/24/14): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, ~30"x20", weak concentration. A mag 8.7 star is 3' NE. Second brightest in a trio with brighter NGC 777 7' N and much fainter KUG 0156+310 = PGC 74060 6' W. The latter was an extremely faint 8" glow just north of a mag 13-13.5 star.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb