John Herschel discovered NGC 822 = h2461 on 5 Sep 1834 and recorded "F, R, sbM, resolvable, 15", a difficult object." His mean position from two sweeps matches ESO 298-009 = PGC 8055.

600/800mm - 25" (10/16/17 - OzSky): at 244x and 397x; fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated ~E-W, ~35"x25", small bright nucleus rises to a stellar peak. Located 10.7' ENE of mag 8.5 HD 12948. Forms the eastern vertex of a small triangle with a mag 13.7 star 2.7' W and a mag 13.0 star 3.2' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb