R.J. Mitchell discovered NGC 2689 on 11 Mar 1858 at Birr Castle. It was indicated on the sketch of the NGC 2684 field published in the 1880 Monograph, along with NGC 2686, NGC 2687 and NGC 2688. Dreyer reobserved the field in 1878, but he noted the "sky is very bad" and the novae were not seen.

John Herschel only included three of the four novae in the GC (1715/1716/1717), so one was left out, but Dreyer assigned NGC 2689 to the 4th nebula in the NGC. Based on the sketch, NGC 2689 can be matched with LEDA 2333935. This is the faintest known galaxy (V = 16.3-16.4) discovered at Birr Castle, according to Wolfgang Steinicke.

RNGC and PGC misidentify PGC 25042 (at 08 55 15.5 +49 09 04) as NGC 2689. NED and HyperLEDA equate NGC 2689 with PGC 2333935. The identifications of NGC 2688 and NGC 2689 are discussed by Malcolm Thomson in his Catalogue Corrections.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/8/97): not found.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb