William Herschel discovered NGC 821 = H I-152 = h193 on 4 Sep 1786 (sweep 582) and commented "pB, vS, R, bM, 1' sf a considerable star with a small one sf the nebula." Dreyer's 1912 notes to the Second Catalogue mentions "A second obs. (Sweep 591, Sept. 18, 1786) describes it as vB, vS, lE, vBN. But the neb. is in reality only pB, second class." John Herschel also logged it on 19 Jan 1828 (sweep 121) as "Not vB; R; sbM to nucl; has a *1m sp, dist 55"." R.J. Mitchell, using the 72" on 18 Dec 1856, recorded a "bMN, E spnf, S * in s end." This star is around mag 15.5 and was not seen in my observation.

200/250mm - 8" (11/8/80): fairly faint, small, compact. A mag 10 star is just 1' NW.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/18/89): fairly bright, fairly small, oval 3:2 SW-NE, very bright elongated core. Located just 1.1' SE of mag 10 SAO 92805!

Notes by Steve Gottlieb