William Herschel discovered NGC 4753 = H I-16 = h1461 on 22 Feb 1784 (sweep 153) and recorded "a fine nebula, brightest in the M; pL; 4 or 5' extent. It is not quite R, but a little compressed. The middle though vB does not resemble the nucleus of a comet." JH made a single obervation and measured an accurate position.

Knox-Shaw, at the Helwan observatory in 1924, described "two lanes of absorption in the nebula, north and south of centre meeting in the preceding end."

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/21/90): bright, large, oval 2:1 E-W, the halo brightens down to a small very bright core. Overall, an impressive galaxy. Mag 9 SAO 139015 lies 8' ESE and mag 7.8 SAO 13910 is 16' NNW.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/12/18): very bright and large, irregular oval, ~5'x3'. Sharply concentrated with an extremely bright core that increased to an intense stellar nucleus. The halo was irregular, particularly on the east side, which had a tattered appearance due to dusty intrusions. NGC 4753 is an unusual I0 galaxy (amorphous irregular) with dust filaments from the shredded remains of a small spiral galaxy that was captured by a much larger elliptical galaxy.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb