William Herschel discovered NGC 5655 = H III-645 = h1827 on 19 Mar 1787 (sweep 720) and recorded "eS, vS, lbM, between 2 vF stars with 300." His offsets from Zeta Boo point directly to UGC 9333, the southeast of a 5.5' pair with NGC 5649, and his comment "between 2 vF stars" clinches this identification.

John Herschel observed the pair on 4 Apr 1831 (sweep 338) and called h1827 "the sf of 2 [with NGC 5649]; the faintest perceivable." His uncertain position is 9 seconds of RA east and 3.5' south of UGC 9333. He misassigned his father's III-645 to h1824 = NGC 5649 and thought h1827 = NGC 5655 was the "nova". JH was probably confused as neither of his poor positions for the pair were a good match with III-645. Dreyer repeated this error and used JH's poor position in the NGC. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 23 May 1887 (see IC2 Notes).

RNGC, UGC, MCG, RC3 and Deep Sky Field Guide misidentify NGC 5655 as NGC 5649. RNGC and PGC misidentify PGC 51863 as NGC 5655. PGC 51863 is located 3' NE of NGC 5655 and much too faint (B = 16.8) to have been picked up by either Herschel. The correct identification was made by Karl Reinmuth in his 1926 photographic survey "Die Herschel Nebel". Also see Corwin's notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/24/95): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated NW-SE, 1.0'x0.8', weak concentration. Located on a line between two mag 13.5 stars 1.3' NNW and 1.8' SSE from center. There are two mag 7 and 8 less than 30' following. Forms a pair with similar NGC 5649 5.5' NW. This galaxy is identified as NGC 5649 in all modern catalogues!

Notes by Steve Gottlieb