William Herschel discovered NGC 5054 = H II-513 = h1568 on 31 Dec 1785 (sweep 503) and logged "cF, iR." A second observation on 7 May 1787 (sweep 732) reads "pB, almost cB, pL, iF, but mbM." JH noted "vF; R; 20"."

200/250mm - 8" (5/26/84): fairly faint, contains a brighter middle with a diffuse outer halo of low surface brightness; the edge of the halo is difficult to define. One or two faint stars are involved. NGC 5017, NGC 5037 and NGC 5044 all lie to the west.

600/800mm - 24" (6/1/13): bright, large, elongated nearly 2:1 NNW-SSE, ~3.5'x2'. Contains a large, bright core with a sharp, bright nearly stellar nucleus. The overall outline and surface brightness is irregular with spiral structure evident. A relatively thin, straight arm is attached on the west side of the core and shoots ~1.2' NNW, separating well from the central region. A second, lower contrast arm is attached at the NE side of the central region and hugs tightly along the eastern side of the core. This arm was not resolved until it extended south of the central region. A small, brighter knot (~10") is visible just north of the central region [~40" N of center]. A mag 13.5 star is just off the NE side, 1.3' from center, and a mag 14 star lies NW of the western arm, 2.2' from center. Forms a pair with MCG -03-34-040 2.6' NNW. The companion appeared faint, small, very elongated 7:2 N-S (major axis aligned with the nucleus of NGC 5054), 22"x6", even surface brightness. The NGC 5044 group (7 NGCs) lies 20'-30' NW.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/21/17): at 488x and 697x: very bright, large, very irregular 3-armed spiral. Strongly concentrated with an intensely bright core and quasi-stellar nucleus. A thin strong arm is attached to the core on the west side. It shoots nearly straight north, aiming east of a mag 14 star 2.3' NW of center and quickly dimming as it heads towards MCG -03-34-040, a companion 2.6' NNW of center. A second arm begins on the north side of the core. It curls east towards a mag 13.5 star, 1.3' NE of center, and separates from the core. It then dims to a very low surface brightness and curves south, ending ~2' SE of center. A third arm starts on the east side of the core and extends south, ending at a brighter patch or HII region [1.2' SSE of center]. NGC 5044, the brightest of a fairly rich group, lies 27' NW.

MCG -03-34-040 appeared fairly faint, moderately large, thin edge-on 6:1 NNW-SSE, 0.6'x0.1', fairly low even surface brightness. The major axis of the axis "points" towards the core of NGC 5054. The northwestern spiral arm of NGC 5054 heads towards this galaxy, but fades out before reaching it

Notes by Steve Gottlieb