Lawrence Parsons, the 4th Earl of Rosse, probably discovered IC 4088 = Sf 3 = Big 309 on 24 Apr 1865, while observing what he assumed was the NGC 4914 field. His diagram, though, matches a field 8° further south! If this identication is correct (proposed by Sue French), then NGC 4913 is a duplicate of IC 843, NGC 4916 = CGCG 160-107 and NGC 4912 is a duplicate of NGC 4922. IC 4088 is labeled Beta in the sketch and noted as the brightest of the nebulae and slightly elongated northwest-southeast. The actual orientation is west-east. See notes for NGC 4912. Truman Safford independently discovered this galaxy, along with IC 842, on 3 May 1866. Bigourdan made another independent discovery on 13 May 1895.

400/500mm - 18" (4/30/11): faint, fairly small, elongated at least 2:1 E-W (sometimes appear nearly 3:1), ~0.6'x0.25', fairly low surface brightness. Located 5.6' SSE of NGC 4913 = IC 843 and 5.6' NW of mag 8.9 HD 113242.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb