William Herschel discovered NGC 850 = H III-259 on 6 Jan 1785 (sweep 351) and logged "eF, eS, irr F." His position is 22 tsec of RA following UGC 1679 = PGC 8369. NGC 863, the next object in the sweep is also 30 tsec too large. Heinrich d'Arrest's position (used in the NGC) is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/4/93): fairly faint, small round, 0.8' diameter, evenly concentrated, faint stellar nucleus. Collinear with a mag 14 star 1.7' SE and a mag 13 star 3.4' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb