William Herschel discovered NGC 4394 = H II-55 = h1251 on 14 Mar 1784 (sweep 170) and noted "Two resolvable nebula. The preceding [M85] is the largest and with 157 seems to have another small nebula joining to it, but with 240 it appears to be a star." He only measured a single position (matching[M85). JH made two observations and his mean position matches UGC 7523.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/23/87): moderately bright, fairly small, brighter core, slightly elongated NNW-SSE. Forms a pair with M85 7.6' W.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb