William Herschel discovered NGC 5463 = H III-58 on 19 Mar 1784 (sweep 179) and recorded as "eF, S. Suspected with 157 and verified with 240; the latter power showed it a little elongated." CH's reduction is 13 sec of RA east and 1' north of UGC 9017.

Wilhelm Tempel measured a micrometric position in list VIII (given in his table) that was used in the NGC. His position, though, is 15 tsec too far west and 3' too far north. But re-reducing his position with respect to his offset star yields an accurate match with UGC 9017.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/4/94): fairly faint, small, elongated 5:2 WSW-ENE, 0.8'x0.3'. Contains a bright core with faint extensions. A mag 11 star lies 2.7' SW of center. Forms a contact pair with an extremely difficult companion (NGC 5463B) just off the NE edge 0.7' from the center. Located at the east end of the NGC 5416 cluster.

600/800mm - 24" (7/1/19): at 375x; fairly bright, moderately large, very elongated 4:1 SW-NE, 0.8'x0.2', high surface brightness. Forms a contact pair with NGC 5463B 0.7' NE of center. The companion was faint, round, only 8-10" diameter and could just be held continuously with averted vision. A mag 12 star is 2.7' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb