Williamina Fleming discovered IC 4593 = Fleming 96 in 1907 on a Harvard objective prism plate. Based on Crossley photographs, Curtis (1918) described, "Central star about mag 10. This is surrounded by a disk of brighter matter 11" in diameter, fading out a little towards the edges. There is a bright wing at the north end in pa 347°, and a smaller and fainter projection opposite this; fainter matter outside brings the whole diameter to about 15"."

The Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebula, Sky Catalogue 2000.0 and the first edition of the Uranometria 2000.0 Atlas has the wrong RA of 16h 12.2m. At this position on the U2000 is a mag 9 star as IC 4593 was recorded as a star in the BD catalogue.

John Mallas coined the nickname "White-Eyed Pea" in his Feb/Mar 1963 article "Visual Atlas of Planetary Nebulae-III", published in the "Review of Popular Astronomy".

200/250mm - 8" (6/81): stellar at 100x but a slightly elongated disc is easy to view at 220x-350x. Located 12' NW of a mag 9 star.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/10/86): at 286x a bright 11th magnitude central star is visible surrounded by a small, slightly elongated halo, bluish color. Located 11' NW of double star ∑2016 = 8.6/10.0 at 7". Incorrect position given in Sky Cat 2000 and plotted at the wrong position on U2000.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb