E.E. Barnard visually discovered IC 4673 on 19 Aug 1895 while making measures of the diameter of Ceres with the 36-inch Lick refractor. He described it as "round, slightly ill defined, of uniform brightness and no central star. The measured diameter of this object was 13.6". I should class it as being of the 13th magnitude."

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/5/86): at 220x appears fairly bright and a small round disc is clearly visible about 20" diameter. Prominent with a Daystar 300 filter and a slight oval shape is discernable at 286x and a UHC filter. Estimate V = 12.5.

600/800mm - 24" (7/11/18): at 200x; moderately bright, fairly small, roundish disc in a rich star field. Very good contrast gain using a NPB filter. Excellent view at 375x; irregularly round, slightly elongated ~NW-SE, slightly clumpy rim. Situated 30" of a mag 12 star that forms the southwest vertex of a small "Keystone" asterism. A 7" pair of stars is 2' WSW with a third wider star to the north. No central star visible.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb