William Herschel discovered NGC 5541 = H III-732 = h1769, along with NGC 5536, on 29 Apr 1788 (sweep 837) and recorded "vF, vS, lE." JH made four observations, reporting on sweep 357, "pF; S; R; gbM; 10"." On another sweep he mentioned "perhaps a third one near." This possibly refers to MCG +07-29-058.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/15/99): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 SSW-NNE, 0.8'x0.4', even surface brightness. Nestled in an 8' string of mag 12-13 stars oriented WSW-ENE. Forms a pair with NGC 5536 5.5' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb