William Herschel discovered NGC 2721 = H II-529 = h543 on 1 Feb 1786 (sweep 520) and simply noted "F, S". His position was 10 seconds of RA too small, though John measured a more accurate position on two sweeps.

The RNGC declination is off by 18' too far north. This mistake was noticed while using the Uranometria 2000 Atlas to star hop to this galaxy and later was verified on the DSS. Coincidentally, the MCG declination is also 9' too far N (all the M-01-23-XXX galaxies must be shifted 9' south). I included this error in RNGC Corrections #3 (on the NGC/IC Project site).

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/13/88): moderately bright, fairly small, irregularly round, large brighter core. Located 15' E of mag 6.6 SAO 136450. The RNGC declination is 18' too far north.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb