John Herschel discovered NGC 4683 = h3422 on 8 Jun 1834 and recorded "eF; S; R; vgbM; 60"; nf a small stars. His position was 1.7' too far south.

While observing the field of NGC 4683, Pietro Baracchi discovered NGC 4696A on 4 Jul 1885 with the 48" Melbourne telescope. He described NGC 4683 as "F; S; R; vlbM. Has a star 13th mag preceding it by 4 seconds and 40" south of it." This galaxy was reported as new at Helwan observatory in 1921, based on plates taken of the Centaurus cluster in 1919-20.

400/500mm - 18" (7/7/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, 0.5'x0.3', moderate concentration with a 10" core. A mag 14.5 star is off the SE end and a mag 13 star lies 1.0' SW. Located 18' SW of NGC 4696 in the core of the Centaurus Cluster (AGC 3526).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb