William Herschel discovered NGC 4902 = H I-69 = h1511 on 8 Feb 1785 (sweep 372) and noted "cB, pL, iR." CH's reduction is 10 sec of RA west of MCG -02-33-092 = PGC 44847. Harold Knox-Shaw first identified this galaxy as an "open spiral" in 1915, based on a photograph taken with the 30" reflector at the Helwan Observatory between 1912-14.

200/250mm - 8" (5/21/82): fairly faint, moderately large, round, diffuse.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/17/90): moderately bright and large, round, weak even concentration to a bright core. Forms the eastern vertex of an equilateral triangle with two mag 10 stars 2.0' NW and 2.2' WSW of center. NGC 4887 is at the edge of the 220x field 10.4' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb