William Herschel discovered NGC 4054 = H III-794 on 17 Apr 1789 (sweep 923) and noted "eF, S, verified by 300." His position is 1.5' north of PGC 38078. Bigourdan wasn't able to find this triple system with the 12-inch refractor at the Paris Observatory (too faint?).

400/500mm - 16" LX200 (4/14/07): very faint, very small, slightly elongated, 20"x15" diameter. This is a triple system, though it initially appeared single. After careful viewing an extremely faint "star" occasionally popped out on the southeast edge. This virtually stellar object is VV 136b = LEDA 3547623.

600/800mm - 24" (6/4/16): at 322x; the western and largest component (VV 136a) of the triple system NGC 4054 appeared faint, small, slightly elongated 20"x15", low surface brightness. The southeast component (VV 136b) is smaller but significantly higher surface brightness and was noted as fairly faint, very small, elongated 12"x9" E-W. The centers of these small galaxies are separated by just 15". VV 136c, the northeast component, was not seen.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/20/17): at 488x; NGC 4054 is a close triple (VV 136) that fits in a 30" circle. VV 136a is the largest component; it appeared moderately bright, fairly small, oval 4:3 or 3:2 E-W, ~24"x15". The galaxy is diffuse with a fairly low surface brightness and only a weakly brighter nucleus. VV 136b, on the southeast side [15" between centers], appeared fairly bright, very small, slightly elongated, ~12"x9". The surface brightness is very high (easily the highest of the trio) and peaks at a stellar nucleus. VV 136c, on the northeast side [20" between centers], appeared faint to fairly faint, very small, elongated 2:1 NNW-SSE, ~15"x8".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb