Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 5287 = St XII-56 on 25 May 1881. His position matches PGC 48741, a very faint galaxy with a star attached at the north edge. Despite the good NGC position, the MCG, PGC, Deep Sky Field Guide and Megastar misidentify a faint double galaxy (MCG +05-32-079) about 3' NNE as NGC 5287.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/8/02): extremely faint and small, 10" diameter. The difficult galaxy is adjacent to a mag 15 star attached on the north side [11" from center], which confuses the observation further! Located 2.3' ESE of a mag 12.5 star. One of the brightest galaxies in AGC 1781. The UGC 8692 chain lies 10' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb