William Herschel discovered NGC 5500 = H III-674 on 12 May 1787 (sweep 734) and logged "cF, cS, iR." His position is 3' too far northeast. He observed it again 3 nights later (sweep 736) and reported "vF, vS, stellar, 300 confirmed it." There were no additional observations by JH, d'Arrest or LdR.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/27/95): faint, fairly small, round, 1.0' diameter, weak concentration. Two bright stars (mag 8.6 SAO 63883 and a mag 9.5 star) oriented E-W lie 5.8' WSW and 8.3' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb