William Herschel discovered NGC 5301 = H II-688 = h1670 on 11 May 1787 (sweep 733) and recorded "F, lbM, mE nearly in the meridian, about 15° sp to nf, about 4' long and less than 1' broad." His position (CH's reduction) matches UGC 8711. JH noted "pF; R; mE." and his RA is marked as very rough (nearest min). He apparently precessed his own poor position to 1860 and recording them as precise in the GC. As a result, the NGC position is 33 sec of RA too far east and 2' too far north.

200/250mm - 8" (5/26/84): faint, very thin streak NW-SE, fairly small. Forms the north vertex of an isosceles triangle with two mag 11/12 stars 2.6' SE and 2.9' S. Located 15' E of a triangle of mag 9 stars.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/7/97): fairly bright, large edge-on NNW-SSE, ~4.0'x0.7'. Bulging brighter center but only weakly concentrated. Nearly extends to two mag 12 stars on either side of SSE end. A mag 14.5 star is preceding the NNW end 2.6' from center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb