John Herschel discovered NGC 5530 = h3563 on 7 Apr 1837 and recorded "a star 12m, perfectly sharp in the center of a very dilute, very gradually fading atmosphere, pmE; 90" l, 40" br. A very remarkable specimen of its class." His position is accurate. Robert Innes described the galaxy with a 7-inch from the Cape of Good Hope as "a fine nebulous star".

300/350mm - 13.1" (4/10/86): faint, fairly small, almost round, very bright stellar nucleus (~12th mag) surrounded by a diffuse halo. Very far southern galaxy to view from Northern California.

400/500mm - 22" (6/28/06 - Hawaii): fairly faint, fairly large, elongated 5:2 NW-SE, 3.5'x1.5'. Appears as a low even surface brightness glow except for a 12th magnitude star that appears to be superimposed on the center! The galaxy seems to extend further to the NW of the star or the halo may be slightly brighter is this direction. Located 3.8' SSW of a mag 10.2 star. A small rectangular asterism of 4 mag 13-14.5 stars follows by 3'.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb