John Herschel discovered NGC 5042 = h3477 on 25 Mar 1836 and recorded "F; L; R; vgvlbM; a star 9m; 1' north, precedes 10s." His position is accurate, although the nearby star is southwest, not northwest.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/1/02): large, low surface brightness galaxy situated just 2.4' NE of mag 8.1 SAO 181487 with a broad concentration. Picked up at 100x and 200x was nearly too high a power for a good view (in fairly poor seeing). Appears elongated at least 2:1 SSW-NNE and perhaps 3'x1.5' although the halo smoothly fades into the background and the nearby bright star detracts from a good view of the halo.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb