Williamina Fleming discovered IC 4997 = Fleming 97 in 1896 during an examination of stars with unusual spectra on a Harvard objective prism plate. The discovery was reported by Pickering in the Harvard College Observatory, Circular No.9 in July 1896. According to Wolfgang Steinicke, Gustav Gruss independently visually discovered IC 4997 around 1896, using a 6" or 8" refractor with the aid of a spectroscope, so both deserve discovery credit.

Based on Crossley photographs taken at Lick, Heber Curtis (1918) reported IC 4997 was "indistinguishable from a star on the Crossley negatives, but shown to have a minute disk visually with the 36-inch."

300/350mm - 13" (7/85): bright stellar planetary at all powers, confirmed with an OIII blinking from El Cerrito. A slightly brighter mag 10.4 star for comparison blinking is 1.1' SW.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/18/01): the PN appears as an unusually bright mag 11 "star" (V = 10.8) at 100x in a rich star field. Verified with OIII blinking. An excellent comparison star is a mag 10 star just 1' SW. A 12th mag star 2' WSW completes a distinctive obtuse triangle. With the filter the PN is nearly one magnitude brighter than the 10th mag star. At 280x, the PN is bluish and a tiny disc was highly suspected, perhaps 2"-3".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb