Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 879 = LM 2-331 in 1886 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory. There is nothing at his position but 1.0 tmin west is PGC 8705. Bigourdan was unable to find the galaxy.

400/500mm - 18" (1/15/07): extremely faint, fairly small, round, 0.4' diameter. Very low surface brightness and only glimpsed at 220x. Once identified I could repeatedly detect this dim galaxy with concentrated averted vision but it was a difficult object.

18" (11/6/04): extremely faint, very small, round, 20" diameter. Required averted and concentration in fairly poor seeing and just barely visible as a very low surface brightness spot.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb