William Herschel discovered NGC 5087 = H III-724 on 8 Apr 1788 (sweep 826) and noted "cF, vS, iF." CH's reduced position is 5 sec of RA east of ESO 576-035 = PGC 46541.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/4/92): fairly bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 SSW-NNE, prominent bright core, stellar nucleus. Five fairly bright mag 9.5-11 stars are at the west edge of the 220x field including a pair 9' due west.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb