Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 4053 = m228 on 9 May 1864 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen. His position, measured on 3 nights, matches UGC 7029. He accurately placed the mag 15 star which precedes by 7 sec of time (though he estimaged its magnitude as 18). Marth independently discovered the galaxy on 18 Mar 1865. His position was good, though on the same night Marth also recorded NGC 4042, 4056 and 4060 which all have very uncertain identifications due to poor positions.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/11/02): faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 WNW-ESE, 0.7'x0.3'. Brighter along the major axis and the very small core contains a stellar nucleus. A mag 15 star is 1.6' W of center. Located 33' SSW of NGC 4065 (brightest in a large group of NGC galaxies).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb