William Herschel discovered NGC 4974 = H III-782 on 14 Apr 1789 (sweep 921) and recorded "Two [along with III-781 = NGC 4973], both vF, S. The place is that of the 2nd [NGC 4974], the other NGC 4973] is 3 or 4' sp." Caroline Herschel's reduced position is 1.0 tmin east of PGC 45280, but I re-reduced his offset with respect to NGC 4964 = III-779, the previous object in the sweep, and it is only 16 sec of RA east and 2' south of CGCG 270-051 = PGC 45321. WH made an error when noting "the other is 3 or 4' sp". NGC 4973 is 3.8' northwest.

Rumker independently discovered NGC 4974 in preparation for the Hamburg star catalogue (marked as a "nebula" on the chart). The NGC position was corrected by Rumker and mentioned in the IC 2 notes and in Dreyer's 1912 Scientific Papers.

CGCG, RNGC, RC3 and DSFG all mislabel NGC 4974 as NGC 4973 and MCG mislabels NGC 4974 as IC 847. In addition, CGCG 270-052 is misidentified as NGC 4974 in CGCG, RNGC, PGC and Deep Sky Field Guide. See notes for NGC 4967 and NGC 4973 for more on this confusing situation. Malcolm Thomson and Harold Corwin also analyze the identification in their lists.

400/500mm - 18" (6/27/03): fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, ~25"x20" NW-SE, moderate concentration with a 10" brighter core. The halo increases in size with averted to 0.6' in diameter. In a rich group with similar NGC 4973 3.8' SE and fainter. A mag 13 star lies 1.9' WNW close to midpoint with NGC 4973.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb