William Herschel discovered NGC 5402 = H III-810 = h1727 on 24 Apr 1789 (sweep 926) and logged "cF, vS, R." JH made a single observation and his position is 1.5' north of UGC 8903.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/2/00): faint, thin edge-on 5:1 NNW-SSE, 60"x15". Contains a very small brighter core with very thin extensions. A mag 15 star is off the south end, 1.1' from center. Located 4' SSE of a mag 11.5 star. A pair of galaxies, NGC 5389 and NGC 5379 lie ~20' WSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb