William Herschel discovered NGC 5214 = H III-656 = h1632 on 9 Apr 1787 (sweep 725) and recorded "vF, vS, lbM." JH made the single observation, "vF; R; gbM; 30...40 arcseconds." and measured an accurate position. A faint edge-on companion is off the southwest side.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/2/00): fairly faint, slightly elongated 4:3 NW-SE, 1.1'x0.8', weak even concentration. Forms the southern vertex of a triangle with a mag 10.5 star 2.7' NW and a mag 10 star 5' NE. Located 18' SE of mag 6.1 SAO 44637.

600/800mm - 24" (6/4/16): at 375x; fairly faint to moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated NW-SE, 45"x35", very small bright core. Mag 9.9 SAO 44651 is 5' NE along with a mag 10.7 star 2.8' NW. Located 22' SE of mag 6.1 HD 117710.

Forms a contact pair with NGC 5214A = MCG +07-28-029 just off the southwest edge, 30" between centers. NGC 5214A appeared extremely faint (though not a threshold object) and small, slightly elongated SW-NE, 0.2'x0.1'.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb