William Herschel discovered NGC 977 = H III-472 = h2485 on 28 Nov 1785 (sweep 479) and recorded "vF, pL, vlbM, near some scattered stars.". Both William and John Herschel measured accurate positions.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/4/93): faint, small, round, weak concentration, occasional stellar nucleus. Just NW are three equally spaced stars mag 11 and 12 which form a line NW-SE of length 6'. Located 7.7' SSE of mag 8.9 SAO 148452. NGC 981 lies 13' SSW.

900/1200mm - 48" (10/26/11): at 488x this galaxy is sharply concentrated with a very intense oval core oriented WSW-ENE, ~36"x27", The core increases to a bright quasi-stellar nucleus and sometimes a stellar point. The core is surrounded by a much fainter outer halo, 1.6'x1.3', that is only slightly elongated SSW-NNE. PGC 175239 was picked up 5' NNE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb