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 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" this is the southeast member of the interacting pair dubbed "The Mice". This object is the brighter of the pair and appears faint, small, round with a small bright core. In contact with NGC 4676A at the northwest edge.

600/800mm - 24" (5/22/17): at 375x; IC 820 = NGC 4676 is the slightly brighter southeast member of the interacting Mice duo. It appeared fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, very small brighter nucleus, 20" diameter. With averted vision the there was a strong hint of haze on the south side, but its tidal tail wasn't seen. The core of IC 819 is close northwest [38" between centers].

900/1200mm - 48" (4/6/13): IC 820 is the slightly brighter SSE component of NGC 4676, a fascinating interacting system with IC 819 (NNW component) separated by 40" between centers. At 375x and 488x in soft seeing, IC 820 appeared 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 820 has a small, low surface brightness halo on its south side, but its tail to the south was not visible. See notes for IC 819 for the bright tail.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb