Isaac Roberts discovered IC 3474 on a photograph taken 25 Mar 1892 with his 20-inch reflector. He noted "pretty faint; elongated north following to south preceding; no structure or nucleus; 17th mag star on the north preceding side and a bright star on the south following side. 1894 March 25th."

600/800mm - 24" (5/20/17): at 200x; very faint, moderately large, very elongated 5:1 SW-NE, 1.1'x0.2', very low surface brightness, no core or zones. A mag 11 star is 1.5' SSE. Located 23' due west of NGC 4527.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb