William Herschel discovered NGC 5854 = H II-544 = h1903 on 24 Feb 1786 (sweep 532) and simply noted "pB". He logged this galaxy again on 27 May 1786 (sweep 567) as "F, vS." JH made 3 observations and recorded on sweep 427 "pB; S; R; glbM; 12"; among stars."

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/4/92): fairly bright, moderately large, very elongated 3:1 SW-NE, very bright core, stellar nucleus at moments. A mag 12 star lies 1.8' ESE of center. Located 5.1' ESE of a mag 9 star. Member of the NGC 5846 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb