Guillaume Bigourdan found IC 538 = Big. 154 on 21 Mar 1890. His position (from 4 observations) matches NGC 2885. This galaxy was discovered by John Herschel on 24 Feb 1827, but his RA (noted as uncertain) was 25 seconds too large and Bigourdan noted "does not appear to be NGC 2885". Dreyer noted the possible equivalence, though, in the IC description. MCG labels NGC 2885 as IC 538 only. See NGC 2885 for more.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/13/91): faint, very small, round, stellar nucleus. A mag 15 star is 40" E of center and a mag 14 star is 2' NW. Located 8' NW of mag 8.5 SAO 80841. Brightest in a trio with CGCG 121-099 1.8' ENE and IC 2474 1.8' NW. Incorrect identification in RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb