William Herschel discovered NGC 5520 = H III-676 on 15 May 1787 (sweep 736) and recorded "cF, cS, lE, brighter towards the preceding side, nearly in the parallel." CH's reduction is 12 sec of RA too far east and 1.5' too far north. He observed the galaxy again on 1 May 1788 (sweep 840), but his RA was further out. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 12 Jun 1887 (repeated in the IC2 Notes). There were no observations by JH, d'Arrest or at Birr Castle.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/27/95): fairly faint, elongated 2:1 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.5'. Sharp concentration with a small bright core and faint extensions. A mag 13 star lies 2.7' SW of center. Located 5.3' WSW of mag 8.6 SAO 29040.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb