Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 4424 on 27 Feb 1865 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen. His position, measured on 4 nights, matches UGC 7561 and he estimated the size as 80".

SN 1895A was discovered in 1925 by Max Wolf on a plate taken on 16 Mar 1895 and reported as a variable star (assigned VW Vir) or a nova. This supernova and 1895B (Z Cen) in NGC 5253 are the oldest known extragalactic supernovae after S And in M31, which occurred 10 years earlier.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/18/87): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated E-W, bright core. NGC 4417 is at the edge of the 220x field 11' NNW.

900/1200mm - 48" (3/1/19): at 488x; very bright, fairly large, elongated ~5:2 E-W, ~2.5'x1', asymmetric appearance. Contains a larger bright elongated core that appears brightest on the east end (possibly a HII region). The brighter central part extends further to the west than to the east of center. The outer halo has a low surface brightness and dims out gradually, so there was no distinct edge. A 16th mag star is off the south side [35" from center]. IC 3366, only 0.3' SW of this star, was almost fairly faint, elongated 2:1 NNW-SSE, ~15"x7".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb