Heinrich d'Arrest found NGC 5868 on 27 Apr 1862 with the 11-inch refractor at Copenhagen. His single measurement is on the north side of the halo of UGC 9743. WH discovered this galaxy on 11 Apr 1787, recorded it as II-684 = NGC 5865, but his position was poor (or he confused it with nearby NGC 5869). JH assumed d'Arrest's nebula was new, assigned it GC 4060 and Dreyer included it in the NGC. But Dreyer concluded NGC 5868 = NGC 5865 in his 1912 update to WH's catalogues

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/10/91): faint, small, round, weak concentration, faint stellar nucleus. A mag 11 star lies 4.0' ENE. Forms a pair with NGC 5869 3.6' S.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb