Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 988 = St X-13 around 1880 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory and recorded "This is the star 4811 Lalande, surrounded by a faint round nebulosity, a bit extended to the southeast.". Stephan's position is incorrect as the 7th magnitude superimposed star is 79 Ceti. Esmiol doesn't give a corrected position in his re-reduction of Stephan's measurements, but Dreyer corrected the position in the NGC. He comments in the IC 2 notes section: "No nebulosity seen by Burnham [Publ of Lick Observatory, II) and Barnard. Stephan's position is wrong, being taken from Baily's Lalande, where the places of two stars (with an 18 second difference in right ascension) are mixed up. I took the northeastern star, as I was not certain that it was not nebulous, while the southwestern one was certainly free from haze".

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/1/86): faint, very elongated 3:1 WNW-ESE, wider on ESE edge. Unusual appearance as mag 7.2 HD 16152 (79 Cet) is directly superimposed on the WNW side!

Notes by Steve Gottlieb