William Herschel discovered NGC 5252 = H III-505 = h1653 on 2 Feb 1786 (sweep 521) and noted "vF, vS, R." On sweep 142, JH noted "F; R; bM; 30"."
400/500mm - 17.5" (4/28/90): fairly faint, small, elongated 3:2 SSW-NNE, small bright core, faint stellar nucleus. NGC 5246 lies 30' SSW.
Notes by Steve Gottlieb