Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 946 = St XIII-20 (along with NGC 937 = St XIII-19) on 12 Dec 1884 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory and recorded "F, S, R, glbM". His position matches UGC 1979 = PGC 9556.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/26/94): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.6', sharp concentration with a small, round bright core and stellar nucleus. Forms the southern vertex of a quadrilateral with three mag 11 stars between 2.5' and 3' separation NNW, NNE and NE. NGC 937 lies 15' W. Located at the east edge of galaxy cluster AGC 347.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb