William Herschel discovered NGC 4297 = H III-93, along with NGC 4296, on 13 Apr 1784 (sweep 191) and recorded both as "vF, vS; and one still smaller and fainter suspected just by." His single offset is just 5 sec of RA following UGC 7409 (taken as III-92 = NGC 4296) with fainter CGCG 042-041 (taken as III-93 = NGC 4297) just 1.1' NNW.

But III-93 was not seen by Heinrich d'Arrest or Guillaume Bigourdan and Frost missed it on a Harvard plate, so he classified it as nonexistent (Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol 88, No. 1). The CGCG has a single entry and calls this a double system.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/24/90): extremely faint and small, round, requires averted. Located 1.1' N of NGC 4296.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb