Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 5950 = St XII-74 on 21 Jun 1882 and recorded "vF, S, R, preceded by a small star a little north." His position is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/15/93): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 SSW-NNE. A mag 13.5 star is just at the north edge of the halo 1.0' from center. A nice right triangle of three brighter stars is about 5' SW with mag 9 SAO 45583 at the vertex with a mag 10 star 40" N and a mag 11 star 50" E.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb