William Herschel discovered NGC 564 = H III-442 on 1 Oct 1785 (sweep 448) and logged "vF, vS, iE." Édouard Stephan (VIII-2, second list) independently found the galaxy on 21 Nov 1878 with the 31" reflector at the Marseille Observatory, although Stephan noted the probable equivalence with H III-441.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/22/84): fairly faint, fairly small, almost round, bright core. Two bright stars are in the field to SE.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/1/92): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, very small bright core. A mag 15 star is just off the west edge. Third of three and similar to NGC 560 6' WSW although different position angles. Located 7' NNW of mag 8.6 SAO 129314 and 10' NNW of mag 6.9 SAO 129315. Member of the AGC 194 cluster.

600/800mm - 24" (9/23/17): at 375x; moderately bright, fairly small, round, small bright core, 30" diameter. A mag 14 star is 1.4' S and a mag 15 star is 40" NW of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb