William Herschel discovered NGC 877 = H II-246 = h210, along with NGC 871, on 14 Oct 1784 (sweep 289) and recorded "F, pL, E, south of a considerable star [the galaxy is 5' north of the star]; the situation of these two is very similar with regard to the star, and rather remarkable; the distance from the star about 4 or 5'." John Herschel made an observation on 7 Sep 1828 (sweep 173): "pB; R: pgbM; a small * sf; dist 1' and a * 9m 5' dist nearly s[outh], a little foll." R.J. Mitchell, LdR's assistant on 3 Nov 1855, recorded "[NGC 877] has a * or knot in p end, centre suspected resolvable; dark space running along southern side of nucleus?" The "dark space" is a gap between the core and a spiral arm and the "* or knot in p end" appears to be an HII region.

200/250mm - 8" (1/1/84): faint, fairly small, even surface brightness. An extremely faint star is at the SSE edge. A mag 9 star is 4' SE. NGC 871 lies 12' W.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/18/89): moderately bright, fairly small, oval 3:2 NW-SE, broadly concentrated halo. A mag 13.5 star is at the SE end 1.1' from center. Located 5' NNW of mag 8.0 HD 14192. Brightest in a group with NGC 876 2' SW and NGC 871 12' W.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb