Also in the field are NGC 4840 7.0' N and MCG +05-31-023 3.8' SW. MCG +05-31-023 appeared extremely faint, very small, round. It forms the SW vertex of a near equilateral triangle with two mag 14 stars 1.5' N and 1.6' ENE. PGC 44162, which is misidentified in most sources (PGC, SIMBAD, RNGC) as NGC 4824, lies 11.4' WNW. It appeared extremely faint, round, only 12" diameter, almost visible continuously with averted. Nearly forms an isosceles trapezoid with two mag 14 stars 5'-6' W and a mag 13.5 star 4.4' SSW.

William Herschel discovered NGC 4839 = H II-386 = h1494 on 11 Apr 1785 (sweep 396) and simply noted "F, pL". His position is 3' south of UGC 8070. Heinrich d'Arrest measured the position on 5 nights and noted the discrepancy in position (he calls it 5' in declination).

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/14/94): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.7', weak even concentration to a brighter core. Lies exactly midway between a mag 11.5 star 2.5' NE and a mag 14 star 2.4' SW. Forms a close "pair" with NGC 4842 (itself a double system) 2.6' E. NGC 4839 has a cD outer envelope (not seen) and is part of a subgroup that is falling into the core of the Coma Cluster (AGC 1656).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb