Francis Leavenworth discovered NGC 985 = LM 2-341 in 1886 with the 26" refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory. His position is only 1' S of VV 285 = PGC 9817.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/29/94): fairly faint, very small, round, 15" diameter, sharp stellar nucleus with a small very faint halo! A triangle of mag 10/11 stars with sides 1.7', 2.5' and 3.0' is about 5' WNW and the galaxy forms the bottom of a "cross" asterism with these stars. This is a Seyfert galaxy, accounting for the dominant nucleus.

900/1200mm - 48" (10/26/11): at 488x and 610x this disrupted galaxy (possible collisional ring) revealed its structure. A very bright, sharp stellar nucleus is offset to the southwest side of the halo. The moderately large halo appears as a 0.9'x0.7' oval or a circle that was squashed along the south and southeast edge, near the nucleus. With averted vision, the brighter rim was noticeable and the galaxy appeared as a ring with a darker center and a "diamond" (the Seyfert nucleus) attached on the southeast side. The ring appeared similar to a faint annular planetary. An extremely faint mag 18 star is at the north edge of the rim.

2MASX J02343785-0853042, an easily visible galaxy, lies 6' S. It appeared faint to fairly faint, slightly elongated NW-SE, 20"x15", broad concentration, brighter core. A mag 12.5 star lies 45" NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb