William Herschel discovered NGC 5440 = H II-416 = h1739 on 1 May 1785 (sweep 405) and recorded "pB, pL, bM, irr E." JH made the single observation "F; S; R: bM; has a * 11m sp 1' distance."

NGC 5441 is probably a duplicate observation by JH. See that number.

300/350mm - 13.1" (6/18/85): fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated, broad concentration, fairly faint stellar nucleus. A mag 12 star is close SW, just 1.3' from center. NGC 5441 lies 5.0' ESE. Slightly inferior to NGC 5444 located 23' N.

600/800mm - 24" (7/1/16): at 375x; bright, moderately large, elongated 5:2 SW-NE, ~1.2'x0.5', sharply concentrated with a very bright high surface brightness nucleus. A mag 12 star is off the southwest end, 1.3' from center.

UGC 8955, situated 7.8' NW, appeared very faint, very elongated 4:1 N-S, 35"x9". A mag 14.5 star is off the northeast side, 45" from center. MCG +06-31-053 = PGC 50057, the galaxy all modern sources identify as NGC 5441, appeared very faint or extremely faint, small, round, 15" diameter, very low even surface brightness. It required averted vision, but once identified I could almost hold the glow continuously with concentration.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb