Robert Innes discovered IC 4351 in 1901 with the 7-inch Merz refractor at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. He was searching for NGC 5351 and reported finding "a small elliptical nebula near two 10th mag star. This is 1° different [north] from h's declination [for NGC 5357]."

300/350mm - 13.1" (4/10/86): fairly faint, very elongated streak 5:1 SSW-NNE. A mag 13.5 star is off the east edge of the core.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb