George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 5682, along with NGC 5683 and 5693, on 13 Apr 1850. He was observing the field of NGC 5689. He simply noted three nova, labeled A = NGC 5682, B = NGC 5683 and C = NGC 5693, which he called "faint" and placed them reasonably accurately in his sketch.

300/350mm - 13" (5/26/84): extremely faint, near visual threshold, no details. A mag 14 star is 2' S. Located 8.5' SW of NGC 5689 in a group.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/27/98): extremely faint. very small, round, ~20" diameter. Forms a close pair with NGC 5683 1.3' ESE. A mag 14 star is 2.1' S of center. I only observed the core and missed the low surface brightness arms. The pair is located ~8' SW of NGC 5689 within a group of 5 galaxies.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb