John Herschel discovered NGC 4785 = h3439 on 1 Mar 1835 and recorded, "vF; S; R; glbM." There is nothing at his single position, but 1.75 min of RA west is ESO 219-004 = PGC 43791, the only nearby galaxy, and his declination matches. ESO/Uppsala calls the NGC designation uncertain.

300/350mm - 14" (4/2/16 - Coonabarabran, 160x): moderately bright, elongated 3:1 ~E-W, 0.9'x0.3', high surface brightness. Contains a small bright core and a bright stellar or quasi-stellar nucleus (this is a Sy2 galaxy). A mag 13.8 star is just off the west side [58" from center] and a mag 15 star is 1.3' SW. Several brighter stars are to the north of the galaxy including a mag 10.8 star 4.5' NW, a mag 10.6 star 6' N and a mag 11 star 4.3' NNE. Located 12' NNE of mag 4.3 HD 111915. It helped to place this annoyingly bright star outside the field. NGC 4785 is situated 2° NW of the large spiral NGC 4945.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb