William Herschel discovered NGC 5839 = H II-541 on 24 Feb 1786 (sweep 532) and simply noted "F". His position is an excellent match with UGC 9693. John Herschel made no observations, but it was recorded by d'Arrest on 5 nights with the 11" refractor at Copenhagen.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/10/91): fairly faint, fairly small, round, moderate concentration down to a small bright core containing a substellar nucleus. Member of the NGC 5846 group with NGC 5845 10' E.

600/800mm - 24" (6/23/17): at 260x; bright, moderately large, round, 50" diameter. Sharply concentrated with a very bright, very small nucleus surrounded by a much fainter halo of fairly even surface brightness. A mag 11.8 star is 2' SSW. First in a string with NGC 5845 8' E, NGC 5846/5846A 16' E and NGC 5850 26' ESE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb