William Herschel discovered NGC 7810 = H (III-984) = h2296 = Sw. VI-99 on 17 Nov 1784 (sweep 320) and recorded "suspected but 240 showed 2 small stars, and left it doubtful whether they contained nebulosity between them or not; rather against." He decided to not include this object in his three catalogues and CH crossed out the internal discovery number (649) in her fair copy. CH's reduced position is 1.5' north of UGC 12919, and the identification is certain.

John Herschel made 3 observations and noted on sweep 174 "eF; follows 2 stars which point a little south of it. It is called a suspected nebula by my Father in his sweeps." He added the designation "H.MS" (Herschel manuscript) as a synonym for h2296 and Dreyer called it "(III-984)" in the NGC.

Lewis Swift independently found this galaxy on 5 Aug 1886 and recorded it as the 99th object in his 6th discovery list. Swift's position is 16 tsec too far west but his comment "2 F stars v near and in line with it" fits perfectly.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/15/90): faint, very small, slightly elongated E-W, small bright core, stellar nucleus. A mag 14.5 star is just 0.4' NW of center. NGC 7803 lies 18' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb