Charles Messier discovered M58 = NGC 4579 = h1368 (along with M59 and M60) on 15 Apr 1779. On 15 Mar 1784 (sweep 174), William Herschel logged, "pB, pL" on 15 Mar 1784. On 17 Apr 1784 (sweep 199) he wrote, "F, L.". JH made four observations, first on 9 May 1825 (sweep 4) as "vB; irreg R; gbM; a B * precedes 1/2 field.".

William Parsons apparently discovered spiral structure in M58 before 1850 as it was included in the listed of "Spiral or curvilinear" nebulae in the 1850 PT paper. The 1861 and 1880 monographs, though, do not list an observation earlier than 1851.

300/350mm - 13" bright, increase to a small bright core, slightly elongated E-W, diffuse halo.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/25/87): bright, moderately large, slightly elongated 4:3 WSW-ENE, small very bright core, stellar nucleus. Located 7.6' E of mag 8.3 SAO 100179.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb