William Herschel discovered NGC 5077 = H II-193 = h1577 = h3490, along with NGC 5076 and NGC 5079, on 11 May 1784 (sweep 211). See his description under NGC 5076. From Slough, JH recorded "B; R; sbM; 30"; the northern and second of 3." d'Arrest made two observations and measured a very accurate position with respect to the mag 7.3 star 33 sec of time preceding.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/11/88): second of three and brightest in a group with NGC 5079 3.0' SSE and NGC 5076 5.0' S. Fairly bright, fairly small, oval ~N-S, bright core, stellar nucleus. A mag 14 star is 0.9' SE and an extremely faint mag 15 "star" is at the southeast end. The mag 15 "star" mentioned above is actually a very faint companion in contact.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb