Guillaume Bigourdan discovered NGC 4817 = Big 60 on 11 May 1885. There is nothing at his position, but Harold Corwin notes his Comptes Rendus position (repeated in the NGC position) is incorrect and Bigourdan's offsets point to PGC 83663.

Max Wolf reported NGC 4817 was not found on a Heidelberg plate (IC 2 notes) and RNGC classifies the number as nonexistent.

400/500mm - 18" (5/12/07): very faint and small, round, 20" diameter. A mag 14 star lies 1.5' NE. Located on the west side of AGC 1656 about 45' W of the core. A similar galaxy, NGC 4828, lies 5.6' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb