William Herschel discovered NGC 5732 = H III-686 = h1869 on 16 May 1787 (sweep 738) and logged "eF, cS, lbM." The next object in his sweep was simply described as "a small patch, very faint." and not assigned an internal discovery number. But the time was noted as 1 min 6 sec after NGC 5732, and 13' north. Close to this offset is UGC 9473, which is another pre-NGC discovery by WH. JH made two observations of NGC 5732 and logged "vF; S; R; bM."

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/21/93): faint, fairly small, round, 1.0' diameter, weak broad concentration with no visible core.

600/800mm - 24" (6/15/15): at 260x; moderately bright, oval 3:2 SW-NE, 0.9'x0.6', fairly weak concentration. Using 375x the galaxy has a mottled, irregular appearance and fainter outer portions of the halo sometimes become more evident.

UGC 9473, which lies 17' NE, appeared moderately to fairly bright, roundish, 0.8' diameter, gradually brightens to the center but no distinct zones at 260x. A mag 10 star lies 6.5' SW and NGC 5732 is 17' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb