William Herschel discovered NGC 4479 = H II-116 on 8 Apr 1784 (sweep 187) and recorded "Two resolvable nebula [NGC 4477 and 4479] at 4' or 5' distance." His single position matches[NGC 4477 but the separation is 5' so the identification is certain.

Heinrich d'Arrest independently found NGC 4473 and 4477 on 29 Mar 1856, but missed NGC 4479. John Herschel was surprised that d'Arrest missed NGC 4479 as it was in the same field as[NGC 4477 and a class II nebula. He wrote a letter to John Russell Hind (as possibly another variable nebula), which was reprinted in 1862 MNRAS, Vol. 22, p.250 titled "Sir John Herschel to Mr. Hind, on the Disappearance of a Nebula in Coma Berenices". He was 70 years old at the time and decades past being an active observer. Jean Chacornac, Schönfeld and Lassell, reading about the supposed missing nebula, also confirmed the visibility of NGC 4479. Eventually d'Arrest observed this galaxy on 5 May 1862 using the 11-inch Copenhagen refractor.

300/350mm - 13.1" (5/14/83): faint, small, round, diffuse, even surface brightness.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/25/87): fairly faint, small, slightly elongated N-S, weak concentration. Located 6' SE of NGC 4477.

600/800mm - 24" (5/29/14): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 4:3 N-S, 45"x35", broad weak concentration with a slightly brighter core. Forms a pair with brighter NGC 4477 5.3' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb