William Herschel discovered NGC 4085 = H I-224 on 12 Apr 1789 (sweep 919) and recorded "pB, mE, the brightness confined to a small point." His position is poor - about 6' too far southeast. d'Arrest found it on 4 Dec 1861 but his position was nearly 3' too far south (he suspected it was identical to H I-224. John Herschel still assigned two numbers in the GC, but Dreyer combined the two GC designations in the NGC. d'Arrest later made two accurate measurements of NGC 4085.

200/250mm - 8" (3/28/81): faint, small, elongated WSW-ENE. Two mag 8 stars are in the field to the SE and SW. Located 11' SSW of NGC 4088.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/13/91): fairly faint, moderately large, very elongated 4:1 WSW-ENE, 2.5'x0.6', weak concentration. Forms an isosceles triangle with mag 7.6 SAO 28237 6' SW and mag 8.4 SAO 28247 7' SE. NGC 4088 lies 11' NNE. Member of the M109 (NGC 3992) group = LGG 258.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb