John Herschel discovered NGC 5649 = h1824 on 4 Apr 1831 and noted "the faintest perceivable; the first and northern of 2". His position is 1.5' southeast of UGC 9330. He mistakenly assumed his father's H. III-645 applied to this galaxy, instead of NGC 5655, which he claimed as a "nova".

The identifications are confused in all the major catalogues. NGC 5649 is labeled as NGC 5648 (a duplicate observation by Bigourdan) in the RNGC, UGC and RC3 but as NGC 5649 in MCG. By historical priority, H III 645 = NGC 5649 should apply. RNGC, UGC, MCG and PGC misidentify NGC 5655 = UGC 9333 as NGC 5649. See Corwin's notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/24/95): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 N-S, 1.2'x0.8', ill-defined halo with weak concentration. Forms a pair with NGC 5655 5.5' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb