William Herschel discovered NGC 4944 = H II-395 = h1522 on 11 Apr 1785 (sweep 396) and noted "F, S." JH recorded "F; R; bM; has * 9m 45° nf; 1' dist."

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/19/01): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 E-W, 1.0'x0.4', very small bright core. Situated between two mag 11 stars 2' NE and 4' SW with NGC 4943 6' S. This is one of the brighter members of AGC 1656.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb