William Herschel discovered NGC 5850 = H II-543 = h1902 on 24 Feb 1786 (sweep 532) and simply noted "F". His position is just 4 sec of time too large. JH made the single observation "pF; S; lE; psbM" and measured an accurate position.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/10/91): fairly faint, moderately large, slightly elongated. Unusual appearance as the large bright core dominates the galaxy but there are very faint larger extensions (this is the central bar) very elongated 3:1 WNW-ESE clearly seen with averted. There is a very large difference between the surface brightness of the core and the bar! Two mag 12 stars lie 2' N. A mag 11 star 5.5' NW is midway between NGC 5850 and NGC 5846 which lies 10' WNW.

600/800mm - 24" (6/23/17): at 260x; fairly bright, fairly large, slightly elongated. Contains a small, bright nucleus (round) ~25" diameter with extensions (central bar) NW-SE, mimicking a lenticular galaxy. A very low surface brightness, roundish halo appears to surround the bar, but no structure seen. NGC 5850 is the last in a string of bright galaxies with NGC 5846/5846A 10' WNW, NGC 5845 17' WNW and NGC 5639 26' WNW.

24" (6/14/15): at 200x; moderately bright and large, slightly elongated, sharply concentrated with a relatively large bright core ~30" in diameter. A very faint bar stretches northwest to southeast from the bright core, with a total diameter of 2'. The bar is within an extremely faint halo (ring on images). The bar is easier to see at 260x. Forms a prominent pair with NGC 5846 10' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb