William Herschel discovered NGC 4183 = H III-697 = h1128 on 14 Jan 1788 (sweep 798) and noted "cF, mE from np to sf, 3 or 4' long, 3/4' broad." In his 1814 PT paper, he mentions "several small stars are contained in faint nebulosity about 3 or 4' long and 3/4' broad." His sketch shows several stars, although only one star is evident on the DSS.

R.J. Mitchell, observing with LdR's 72" on 6 Apr 1856, noted "F, bM, a bright star in sf edge and a patch in np end which is the brighter. Neb is fully 4' long."

400/500mm - 17.5" fairly faint, moderately large, edge-on about 7:1 NNW-SSE, 3.5'x0.5', broad concentration without a nucleus. A mag 13.5 star is superimposed at the SE edge of the core 0.8' from the center. Member of the NGC 4111 group = LGG 269 in the UMa Cloud.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb