William Herschel discovered NGC 5395 = H I-190 = h1723, along with NGC 5394, on 16 May 1787 (sweep 738) and recorded "Two, that of the south [NGC 5395] cB, cL. Distance about 1.5'." John Herschel made 3 observations and measured a fairly accurate position.

Spiral structure was recorded several times at Birr Castle, though the observations are listed in the 1861 and 1880 publications under h1713 = GC 3717 = NGC 5378. On 24 Apr 1854, R.J. Mitchell logged "centre pB; oval ns, among sev st. I thought the n end the broader and suspected a dark space preceding nucleus. A pB patch of neby np." On 1 May 1854 he added "Singular object; the main body of neb has a B Nucl and is E ns, the southern end bends back suddenly at a sharp angle and extends np past the neb, ending in a B, R patch or Nucl." On 19 Feb 1855, he reported "Neby seems to reach the knot np. There is knot or star in the arm p and some condensation in the centre of neb. I think F neby reaches up to the star north. Finally, he sketched the pair on 17 Apr 1855 and noted "Mr Johnstone Stoney [who was visiting between professorial duties at Queen's College Galway] saw the p branch extend round the south end of the main neb and continued on to the north, when after a second turn it joined the nucleus."

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/6/86): fairly bright, elongated NNW-SSE, bright core, small bright nucleus. A mag 13.5 star is off the south edge 1.7' from center. There is an impression of a dark lane on the west side and an extremely faint arm beyond the lane (agrees with POSS). Forms a contact system with NGC 5394 at the NNW edge!

900/1200mm - 48" (4/1/11): the Heron Galaxy was a remarkable interacting pair at 375x and 488x. The main galaxy (NGC 5395) was extremely bright, elongated 5:2 N-S, 2.5'x1.1', contains a blazing 30" core and a mottled, clumpy appearance. The most prominent feature is a well-defined, long arm that begins to the north of the core and wraps all the way around the core. This arm shoots past the core just to its east and heads directly south. The knotty arm then tightly curves back around towards the north on the west side, extending the full length of the galaxy and angling slightly towards smaller NGC 5395. A dark lane separates the core region from the arm on the west side. An irregular extension (or part of an arm) branches north from the main arm on the north side of the core and culminates at a brighter region or knot at the north end of the galaxy. NGC 5394 is 1.9' NW of center and one of the arms of this galaxy attaches to NGC 5395 on the NW side.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb