R.J. Mitchell discovered NGC 498 on 23 Oct 1856 with Lord Rosse's 72" and placed on two sketches (object D in the original sketch) in the field of NGC 499. His description says "only suspected", but the object is placed correctly on the sketch between NGC 496 and 499.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/4/97): extremely faint and small, no details visible. This very difficult object was only detected after extended viewing at 220x, 280x and 420x. Finally started to glimpse a virtually stellar spot for moments at 280x using a detailed finder chart to pinpoint the location. Located 1.7' N of NGC 499 and 2.4' S of NGC 496 within the cluster.

600/800mm - 24" (10/4/13): very faint, very small, slightly elongated, 15"x12", low surface brightness. Located 1.8' N of NGC 499 and 2.4' S of NGC 496, on a line between the two brighter galaxies. This is perhaps the faintest NGC galaxy in the NGC 507 Group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb