Gerhard Lohse discovered NGC 2565 around 1886 with the 15.5-inch Cooke refractor at the private Wigglesworth Observatory in Scarborough, England. His position is 0.9 min of RA east and 1.5' N of UGC 4334 but his description "biN" applies to nucleus and a superimposed star.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/1/92): fairly faint, very small, small bright core, very faint halo elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE. Unusual appearance as the core of the galaxy forms a very close double with a similar star at the SE end. The outer halo appears to touch or encompass the star. Located 6.5' NW of mag 8.9 SAO 80108. This galaxy is an outlying member of the Cancer I cluster and is located ~1° north of center of the cluster.

600/800mm - 24" (4/28/14): at low power appears as close "double" consisting of a mag ~14 star and the fuzzy nucleus (similar or slightly brighter) of the galaxy! At 260x the bright core is elongated 2:1 N-S, 20"x10" and surrounded by a very low surface brightness halo, extending ~1.0'x0.6' NNW-SSE. The superimposed star is at the SSE edge of the core. At 375x, the galaxy is seen to be very sharply concentrated with a very bright core and low surface brightness halo. Forms a physical pair with CGCG 119-056 1.8' NW. The companion appeared faint, small, slightly elongated, 15"x12", contains a faint quasi-stellar nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb