William Herschel discovered NGC 4418 = H III-492 = h1261 on 1 Jan 1786 (sweep 507) and recorded "vF, mE, cL, r." His position is 3' south of UGC 7545 = PGC 40762. JH made two observations, noting on sweep 146 "F; S; R; near a star" and measured an accurate position.

David Todd independently discovered this galaxy on 5 Feb 1878 and recorded it as object #17 in his search for a trans-Neptunian planet. Todd's rough RA is 4.0 tmin too far west but his field sketch and offsets to nearby stars clearly match this galaxy.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/24/90): fairly faint, small, oval SW-NE, broad concentration. A mag 15 star is just off the SW end 0.9' from center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb