William Herschel discovered NGC 4685 = H III-398 = h1427 on 27 Apr 1785 (sweep 403) and noted "vF, vS, r." JH made three observations calling this object (sweep 61) "pB; S; resolved or resolvable. Has a star in centre." His mean position is accurate and d'Arrest's is withing a few arcsec of center.

400/500mm - 18" (5/15/04): fairly faint, small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, 0.5'x0.3'. Sharply concentrated with a 0.3'x0.2' core which increases to a stellar nucleus. The small, dim halo is very faint and required averted vision. Situated between mag 10 SAO 10025 4.8' SW and a mag 13 star 3.8' NE.

18" (4/10/04): fairly faint, very small (viewed core only), 20" diameter. Fairly high surface brightness with a sharp, mag 14 stellar nucleus which easily stands out.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb