Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 4873 = Big 64 on 10 May 1863 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen and placed it 1 1/2' north of NGC 4874 and about 1 sec of time preceding. This offset matches CGCG 160-229 = PGC 44621.

Guillaume Bigourdan independently discovered this galaxy on 16 May 1885 with the 12-inch refractor at Paris and recorded "mag 13.4-13.5; 20" dia, no nucleus." His position is accurate, but because of the confusion with the identifications in the densely packed Coma Cluster, NGC 4873 wasn't included in the GC or GC Supplement and first appeared in the NGC.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/21/90): close companion of NGC 4874 in the core of AGC 1656. Very faint, very small, slightly elongated, very small bright core. Located 1.6' NNW of NGC 4874. Nearby galaxies include NGC 4871 1.7' SSW and NGC 4864/NGC 4867 pair 4.3' W.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb