John Herschel discovered NGC 5670 = h3574 on 1 Jul 1834 and recorded "vF, S, lE, between 2 stars 13 and 14 m, forming northern side of a trapezium of stars, one of the others is 8 m." His position and description clearly matches ESO 272-019, although RNGC lists the number as nonexistent (no reference given).

Joseph Turner sketched NGC 5670 on 21 Jul 1876 using the Great Melbourne Telescope. He noted the nebula was "much elongated" and the star at the southwest end was a double.

300/350mm - 14" (4/2/16 - Coonabarabran, 160x): fairly faint, moderately large, oval 2:1 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.5', sharply concentrated with a very small brighter core and much fainter extensions. Nearby stars make the view interesting; a mag 14 star is close off the east side and a mag 13.5 star (double) is at the west edge. A mag 8.2 star (HD 127923) is just 2.3' SW! Located 20' WNW of the bright double star h4690 = 5.5/7.7 at 19". This is a very pretty pair with a bright light yellow primary and a blue secondary. Another mag 5.5 star (HD 128068) is 18' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb