Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 2444 = St VIIIb-22 on 18 Jan 1877, along with NGC 2445. His position matches the northwest component of UGC 4016.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/18/85): forms an interacting double ring system with NGC 2445. Both appear as two nearly stellar knots oriented NNW (NGC 2444) and SSE NGC 2445) with a separation of 1.0', surrounded by faint halo which may merge.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/5/13): NGC 2444 is the northwest component of a remarkable interacting system with the multi-component ring galaxy NGC 2445. At 488x it appeared bright, small, slightly elongated, 30" diameter, sharply concentrated with a very high surface brightness nucleus ~12"-15" diameter. NGC 2445, directly southeast has 6 components, the nearest being VV 117b, just 0.6' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb