Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 5819 on 6 Oct 1861 while searching for H III-311 [= NGC 5808] with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen. His position is off by 22 sec of RA (only 1.6' at this declination), but his comment "forms a triangle with two mag 11 stars" clinches this identification. He noted this nebula was is the vicinity of H's object and questioned if it was identical. It is, but WH's position was 1 min of time too far west and Dreyer assumed the two observations referred to different nebulae. So, NGC 5819 = NGC 5808. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 11 Jul 1896. See notes for NGC 5808.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/27/98): fairly faint, fairly small, round, 0.9' diameter, nearly even surface brightness. Located between two mag 11.5 stars 2.0' NW and 2.4' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb