William Herschel discovered NGC 5836 = H III-312 on 16 Mar 1785 (sweep 389) and recorded "eF, vS, lE, 2 vS stars visible in it." There is nothing at his position, but 2.0 min of RA following and 3' north is UGC 9664 and a mag 14.5 star is involved. Considering the difficulty in measuring accurate positions near the pole, this identification is nearly certain. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 18 Aug 1884 (repeated in the IC2 Notes).

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/27/98): faint, fairly small, irregularly round, 0.7' diameter. A mag 14.5 star is attached at the south end just 20" from center. The galaxy precedes a group of six mag 11/12 stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb