R.J. Mitchell discovered NGC 93 on 26 Oct 1854 using Lord Rosse's 72" and labeled it as "Beta" on his sketch. The description mentions "Several S; F neb visible at once in finder" so JH assumed at least 3 objects were discovered, which he catalogued as GC 40, 41, 42, but only two are labeled on the sketch. NGC 93 was independently found by Heinrich d'Arrest on 5 Oct 1864 and catalogued by Dreyer as GC(S) 5098, as he was unsure of the positions and identifications. d'Arrest's position matches UGC 209 = PGC 1412. GC 42 and 5098 entries were combined under NGC 93.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/29/84): fairly faint, very elongated. There is a trio of very faint stars to the east.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/19/87): faint, very small, oval SW-NE, faint stellar nucleus, bright core. This is a double system with an anonymous companion 35" S. Three mag 13.5-14 stars follow at 1.2' E, 1.9' E and 1.9' ESE forming a small right triangle. Forms a pair with NGC 90 2.8' W at the east side of the NGC 80 group.

900/1200mm - 48" (10/30/16): at 488x and 610x; very bright, moderately large, very elongated 3:1 or 7:2 SW-NE, 1.0'x0.3', well concentrated with an intense core that elongates into a bar with averted vision. A low surface brightness outer halo increases the size to 1.0'x0.45'. Three mag 13.5-14 stars are close following. Forms a striking interacting pair with NGC 90 2.8' WSW.

LEDA 1669768, located 1.4' NNW, appeared fairly faint, very elongated 3:1 ~N-S, 30"x10". At a redshift of z = .071 (light-travel time 950 million years) it resides far in the background of the cluster.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb