William Herschel discovered NGC 5322 = H I-256 = h1684 on 19 Mar 1790 (sweep 953) and recorded "vB, pL, iR, smbM." His position matches UGC 8745. He published a sketch in his 1811 paper (Fig. 24) as an illlustration of "nebulae that are suddenly much brighter in the middle."

200/250mm - 8" (5/21/82): bright, moderately large, small bright nucleus, almost round.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/13/91): very bright, moderately large, unusually bright compact core, substellar nucleus, fainter halo elongated 3:2 E-W. A mag 14 star is at the south edge of the core within the outer halo and 20" from the center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb