William Herschel discovered NGC 2841 = H I-205 = h584 on 9 Mar 1788 (sweep 815) and recorded "a very brilliant nebula, 5' or 6' long and 3 or 4' broad; it has a small bright nucleus with a faint chevelure about it, and two opposite very extensive branches." He published a sketch in his 1811 paper (Fig. 23) as an illlustration of "extended nebulae that show the progress of condensation [core and nucleus]." John Herschel described it on 17 Feb 1831 (sweep 328) as "vB; vmE; vsmbM; pos 150.8°; comes up to a nucleus, a star 10-11m; has 2 st not involved 11 & 12 m, and a 3rd 10 m perp to axis of neb."

This galaxy has hosted 4 supernovae; the earliest known is SN 1912A, which was discovered by Francis Pease in 1917 on a photograph taken with the 60-inch on 19 Feb 1912. It was independently found by Curtis.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/18/85): bright, large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 6'x3'. Contains a very small, very bright nucleus. There is a sharp light cut-off on the east side due to dust. A mag 10 star is at the NW edge 2.8' from center and mag 8.6 SAO 27227 lies 4.8' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb