Rudolph Spitaler resolved IC 819 and 820, the two components of the "Mice", on 20 Mar 1892 using the 27" Grubb refractor at Vienna. His position is exactly 1 min of RA too far east, so he made a digit error in computing or copying the position. Gerard de Vaucouleurs used the letter suffixes NGC 4676A and 4676B in the 1956 "Survey of Bright Galaxies South of -35° Declination", based on Mt Stromlo plates, and the 1964 "Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies".

400/500mm - 17.5" the northwest member (IC 819) of the interacting pair "The Mice" appeared faint, small, low surface brightness, elongated N-S.

600/800mm - 24" (5/22/17): IC 819 = NGC 4676A is the slightly fainter northwest component of the interacting "Mice" duo. At 375x it appeared faint to fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, 15" diameter. The tidal tail was easily seen as a straight thin extension due north, so the combined galaxy/tail extended ~60"x10". The tail has only a slightly lower surface brightness than the "head" (core of the galaxy).

900/1200mm - 48" (4/6/13): IC 819 is the NNW component of a fascinating interacting pair with IC 820 (slightly brighter SSE component), separated by 40" between centers. At 375x and 488x in soft seeing, IC 819 appeared fairly bright, small, elongated 3:2 N-S, 24"x16", high surface brightness. IC 820 was bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 30"x20", high surface brightness, increased to a small, very bright nucleus. The two galaxies are connected or surrounded by a low surface brightness bridge. IC 819 has a remarkable bright, long thin tidal tail shooting due north! The tail has a high surface brightness (brightest feature of this type I've observed in any galaxy) and extends roughly 80"x8", dimming at the north end and ending just east of a mag 17.3 star.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb