William Herschel discovered NGC 4391 = H III-852 = h1248 on 20 Mar 1790 (sweep 954) and logged "vF, stellar, north following a small triangle of B stars." JH made two observations, first recording on sweep 411 "pB; S; bM; 12". Near a pB triple star." His position is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/15/93): fairly faint, small, round, bright core, stellar nucleus. A fairly bright triple star is 2' WSW consisting of three mag 10.5-12 stars with separations 34", 50" and 68". NGC 4441 lies 14' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb