William Herschel discovered NGC 4442 = H II-156 = h1279 on 15 Apr 1784 (sweep 194) and logged "F, pL, lE, r." CH's reduction is 28 sec of RA east of UGC 7583.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/18/87): bright, moderately large, elongated 2:1 WSW-ENE, bright core, stellar nucleus. Two mag 14.5 star are at the east end and just south of the core 1.5' E and 0.9' SSW of center. Located in the core of the Virgo cluster with NGC 4417/NGC 4424 pair roughly 30' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb