John Herschel discovered NGC 4894 = h1510 on 13 Apr 1831 and recorded "the last of 5, south of a * 7m; more suspected to the south." Since his 4th of 5 in the sweep (h1507) refers to NGC 4889, and he gave the declination as 1' south, Harold Corwin concludes that NGC 4894 is likely the earliest observation of NGC 4898, and not fainter CGCG 160-247 just 1' NW. All modern sources take CGCG 160-247 as NGC 4894, but there does not appear to be a pre-NGC observation of this galaxy.

JH listed a second observation of h1510 on 30 Mar 1827, but that observation applies to NGC 4889. He also attached his father's III-363 to h1510 in the GC (3354), but H III-363 likely applies to NGC 4908 (Dreyer assigned it to IC 4051 in his 1912 Correction list).

Because of the density of galaxies in the Coma cluster, there was a great deal of confusion on the identities! Bigourdan and d'Arrest later measured an accurate position for NGC 4898 and both are credited in the NGC, so its identity is not in doubt.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/21/90): located in the core of AGC 1656 just 1.9' SE of NGC 4889. Extremely faint, very small, round. Forms a very close pair with NGC 4898 45" SE. This is the third of four on line with NGC 4889 and NGC 4886 to the NE.

900/1200mm - 82" (5/5/19, McDonald Observatory): at 613x; fairly bright, fairly small, elongated 5:2 SW-NE, 20"x8", brighter nucleus. Situated 0.8' NNW of NGC 4898 (double system) in the core of AGC 1656.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb