Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 999 = St III-14 (along with NGC 995 = St III-12 and NGC 1001 = St III-16) on 8 Dec 1871 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory. His position matches UGC 2127 = PGC 10026. CGCG, UGC, PGC and HyperLEDA equate NGC 999 = St IC 240, but Bigourdan measured IC 240 with respect to NGC 999 so they cannot be equivalent. Malcolm Thomson noted this error in his survey of IC identifications and Harold Corwin suggests IC 240 is probably a line of 4 faint stars. NGC 999 is the third in a group of 6 NGC galaxies discovered by Stephan over 3 nights.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/1/86): very faint, very small, round. A mag 12 star is 1.0' NE. Member of the NGC 995-1005 group with NGC 1001 4.7' E.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb