William Herschel discovered NGC 4866 = H I-162 = h1498 on 14 Jan 1787 (sweep 691) and recorded "vB, E from sp to nf. A small star in the extent of it, near the brightest part, preceding it about 1/2'." His position and description matches UGC 8102. JH made 6 observations and recorded very similar descriptions.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/20/93): fairly bright, large, edge-on 5:1 E-W, 5.0'x1.0', prominent core, stellar nucleus. A mag 13 star is embedded on the west side 0.8' WNW of center. The core appears slightly offset towards the star or the extension west of the core may appear less prominent due to the glare.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/2/11): extremely bright, very large, beautiful edge-on 7:1 E-W, ~4'x0.6'. Sharply concentrated with a small extremely bright nucleus. The central region bulges slightly (spindle-shaped). A bright star (mag 12?) is superimposed on the NW edge, ~50" from the center. GR 8 = UGC 8091, a low surface brightness Local Group member, lies 12' WNW. At 375x, GR 8 appeared fairly faint, moderately large, round, ~1.2' diameter. It contains a very small brighter core and stellar nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb