William Herschel discovered NGC 4453 = H II-26 = h1283? on 28 Jan 1784 (the only nebula discovered on sweep 131) and recorded "pB, not vS. It is not cometic. The brightest part of it lies towards the following side. I suppose it to be resolveable." Dreyer noted this sweep was problematic ("unsatisfactory") with possible confusion with the offset star. There is no object at WH's position and it was not found visually by Bigourdan or photographically by Wolf. Dreyer suggested that if WH made an error of 20' in PD, that II-26 might be II-146 (NGC 4430).

JH, though, found h1283 = PGC 41072 44 sec of RA east of II-26 and this may be the intended object. However, Harold Corwin argues that H II-26 cannot be h1283 due to the significant difference in description (h1283 was called "eF"). He concludes "I'm leaning toward adopting(NGC 4430 as II 26, though with considerable uncertainty."

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/21/90): very faint, extremely small, round. Unusual appearance with mag 14 star nvolved near the south edge and also an extremely faint 16th magnitude star or companion superimposed. NGC 4430/NGC 4432 lie 25' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb