William Herschel discovered NGC 5614 = H II-420 = h1804 on 1 May 1785 (sweep 405) and recorded "pB, vS, R, mbM and the brightness diminishing very gradually." JH made two observations and measured an accurate position. Bindon Stoney, observing on 1 Mar 1851 at Birr Castle, noted "[NGC 5614] is double, two others [nearby] faint." The companion (sketched as very close north-northwest) is NGC 5615.

200/250mm - 8" (4/24/82): faint, small, slightly elongated, small bright nucleus.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/27/95): fairly bright, moderately large, slightly elongated E-W, 1.5' diameter. Well concentrated to a prominent 30" core. A mag 11 star lies 2.7' ESE of center. Forms a pair with NGC 5613 2.0' N.

600/800mm - 24" (7/8/13): very bright, large, round, sharply concentrated with a blazing core that gradually brightens towards the center. Contains a large, irregular halo that increases in size with averted to 1.4'. A very small, very faint "knot" (NGC 5615) is at the NW edge. NGC 5613 lies 2' NNW and NGC 5609 is 4' WSW.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/15/10): very bright, large, round, ~1.5' diameter, bright core increases to center. At 330x two "stars" are superimposed, one on the northwest side of the halo with a fainter star superimposed on the east side of the halo. A third faint star lies ~50" NE of center. At 430x, the "star" on the NNW edge was noticed to be a compact "knot" (interacting companion NGC 5615), ~4" diameter. A tidal tail appears as a very low surface brightness hazy extension off the NW side with NGC 5615 at the position where this glow attaches to the galaxy. Arp classified this extension (Arp 178) as a "narrow counter-tail", apparently formed from a previous interaction with a neighbor (perhaps NGC 5615).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb