William Herschel discovered NGC 5444 = H II-417 = h1741 on 1 May 1785 (sweep 405) and logged "pB, pL, bM, irr E." JH made three observations and recorded on sweep 337 "pB; R; sbM; 15"."

200/250mm - 8" (5/26/84): fairly faint, small, round, small bright nucleus. Forms an equilateral triangle with two moderately bright stars to the south.

300/350mm - 13.1" (6/18/85): moderately bright, small, round, bright core, stellar nucleus, NGC 5445 6.6' SSE. At low power forms the northern vertex of a near equilateral triangle with mag 8.6 SAO 63906 15' SW and mag 9.2 SAO 63915 13' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb