William Herschel discovered NGC 5869 = H II-545 = h1908 on 24 Feb 1786 (sweep 532) and logged "F, S." His position matches UGC 9742, the brighter of a pair with NGC 5865 = NGC 5868 (discovered by WH on 11 Apr 1787). JH made the single observation "pB; S; E; psbM." Heinrich d'Arrest measured an accurate position on 3 nights. RNGC and MCG misidentify this galaxy as NGC 5865.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/10/91): moderately bright, fairly small, very faint halo elongated 4:3 NW-SE, very bright core, stellar nucleus. Brighter and larger of pair with NGC 5865 3.6' N. This galaxy is incorrectly identified as NGC 5865 in the RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb