Other Galaxies

See:

List of Messier objects

New General Catalogue

In Poul Anderson's World Without Stars, Chapter II, Captain Felipe Argens tells Hugh Valland that his next expedition will be to visit "'...some Yonderfolk.'" (p. 12) When Valland asks, "'Like M 31?'" (ibid.), Argens replies, "'Not that far...Intergalactic space.'" (p. 13)

In James Blish's The Triumph Of Time, the Hevians, who have already traversed M 31, the Andromeda galaxy, intend to keep traveling in the hope of finding someone with whom to combine forces against the imminent threat of a cosmic collision. When John Amalfi suggests the million light year hop to the next galaxy, NGC 6822, Miramon replies:

"'...our ultimate destination must be the center of the metagalaxy, the hub of all the galaxies of space-time.'"
-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT p. 508.

In Blish's The Quincunx Of Time:

in 3480, the president of the Milky Way announces federation with the Magellanic Clouds;

a world-line cruiser travels from 8873 to 8704 along the world-line of the planet Hathshepa on the rim of NGC 4725, eleven million light years away (the Wiki article says forty million light years);

in 2091, there is a Hercules Station at NGC 6341 (This one is the Hercules cluster, not another galaxy);

in 2973, a non-humanoid transmits from NGC 2287 (Another cluster. Blish's Robin Weinbaum thinks that it is M 31 but the Wiki article says M 41).

Despite two of his NGCs turning out to be clusters, I think that Blish is ahead of Anderson in terms of specific references to other galaxies.