John Herschel discovered NGC 2521 = h485 on 9 Feb 1831 (sweep 323). His position and description ("pF; R; psbM; sf a *9 dist 3'.") matches UGC 4235, the brightest in a group.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/19/91): fairly faint, very small, round, bright core, faint stellar nucleus. Located 3.6' SSE of a mag 9 star (Z Lyncis). This is the brightest of four in a group including UGC 4241 4.5' E. The three brighter galaxies and Z Lyncis form a perfect parallelogram. UGC 4241 appeared fairly large, small, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, weak concentration.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb