William Herschel discovered NGC 5909 = H III-943 on 12 Dec 1797 (sweep 1070) and recorded "Two, both vF and vS. The place is that of the last [NGC 5912]. The first [NGC 5909] precedes it at the distance of about 1 1/2' and is in the same parallel. 320 showed the same. r." CH's reduced position is 1.5' south of this pair of galaxies.

The declination for[NGC 5912 and 5909 in the UGC, CGCG, RNGC and the first edition of the Uranometria 2000 atlas is 14' too far south.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/18/93): faint, small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE. A mag 13.5 star is 1.3' W of center. Forms a very close pair with NGC 5912 48" E of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb