George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 4738 = Big 57 on 1 Mar 1851. He simply noted "nova, Nucl, E" and gave a rough position. Guillaume Bigourdan independently discovered this galaxy on 9 Mar 1885 and noted "elongated in PA 30°." The NGC position from Bigourdan is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/14/94): faint, small, very thin edge-on 6:1 SSW-NNE, 1.2'x0.2', slightly brighter along major axis. Forms a very close pair with a mag 14.5 star 50" SE of center. NGC 4735 lies 8.6' NNW. Forms the vertex of an isosceles triangle with mag 8.4 SAO 82534 4.9' NNE and mag 9 SAO 82535 5.7' ENE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb