William Herschel discovered NGC 4686 = H II-795 = h1428 on 14 Apr 1789 (sweep 921) and logged "pB, cL, BrN, lE." My re-reduced position (with respect to 77 UMa) is within 1' of UGC 7946. JH called it "pB; pbE; vsbM."

On 2 Apr 1791 (sweep 1001), WH discovered NGC 4695, but assumed it was NGC 4686, so didn't assign it a new internal number. Dreyer, in his 1912 "Scientific Papers of WH" added the new designation III-985 to refer to NGC 4695, which is referred to as II-795 (which applies to NGC 4675!) by JH in the GC and by Dreyer in the NGC. See notes on NGC 4675.

400/500mm - 18" (6/28/03): fairly faint, very elongated 3:1 N-S, 1.0'x0.3', fairly sharp concentration with a small bright core. Two mag 14 stars close NE are collinear with the core. In a group of NGC galaxies and between NGC 4675 15' NW and NGC 4695 12' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb