William Herschel discovered NGC 4469 = H II-157 on 15 Apr 1784 (sweep 194) and recorded "F, pL, mE, r." His position is 4.5' north of UGC 7622. Édouard Stephan independently found NGC 4469 on 28 Apr 1884 and reported it as new in his 13th discovery list (#70). But he caught the prior discovery immediately as a footnote was added that #70 referred to H. II 157 = GC 3019, though Herschel's position was off by 5' in polar distance.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/18/87): fairly bright, elongated 5:2 E-W, fairly large, 3.0'x1.2', faint stellar nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb