William Herschel discovered NGC 4027 = H II-296 = h3371 on 7 Feb 1785 (sweep 386) and logged "pB, pL." His RA was 1.0 minute of time too large. John Herschel made an interesting description from the Cape of Good Hope: "Globular; F; pL; R; 2'; resolved; stars barely seen; but in a better night for definition would no doubt be clearly resolved into st 16m." His position is accurate, though of course his description isn't valid. It was described as a single branched spiral with condensations in the Helwan Observatory bulletin for 1921, based on photos taken by Knox-Shaw in 1914-16 with the 30" reflector.

200/250mm - 8" (3/28/81): faint, moderately large, no details.

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/16/85): fairly bright, round, moderately large, broad concentration, possible stellar nucleus. A mag 14 star is off the ENE edge 1.0' from center. NGC 4027 is an unusual interacting one-armed barred spiral.

13.1" (9/22/84): a spiral arm is suspected north of the nucleus trailing to the east.

600/800mm - 24" (4/10/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x this is a strange looking one-armed spiral. Overall it appeared quite bright and large with a very irregular shape, 3'x2', and sharply concentrated with a fairly small, round core. The core gradually increased to the center. Emerging from the core on the NW end is a fairly well-defined arm that initially extends north in the direction of a mag 11.8 star located 3.7' NNW of the center of the galaxy. This arm then sharply curves counter-clockwise ~135°, bending around to the N and NE, ending just outside a mag 14 star situated close NE of the core. On the SE end of the core, a second arm begins to emerge but it suddenly terminates, creating a very asymmetric appearance with one long, wrapping arm.

A faint companion, NGC 4027A, lies 4' S. At 260x, this galaxy appeared faint, fairly small, slightly elongated ~N-S, 25"x20", low even surface brightness. A very faint star is attached at the south end. The Antennae galaxy, NGC 4038/4039, lies 40' NE.

900/1200mm - 48" (2/28/19): at 488x; the spectacular spiral arm on the north side of the galaxy wrapped around over 180° and faded out beyond a 14th mag star, nearly due east of the core of the galaxy. The core of the galaxy was roundish but contained a brighter bar oriented E-W. There was a darker region just south of the core, due to dust. NGC 4027A, situated 4' S, appeared fairly faint, moderately large, elongated N-S, irregular, fairly low even surface brightness. An extremely faint star is at the southeast edge.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb