George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 5981, along with NGC 5976, on 6 May 1850. He called it a "vF ray." William Herschel made the first observation on 25 May 1788 (sweep 843). In his description of H II-764 = NGC 5982, he noted "A vF [nebula] suspected preceding, lE." Due to his uncertainty, though, he didn't assign it an internal discovery number, so he did not receive credit in the GC or NGC.

300/350mm - 13.1" (5/14/83): faint, moderately large, narrow streak.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/28/87): fairly faint, pretty, thin edge-on 5:1 NW-SE, brighter core. This edge-on galaxy is the first of three with elliptical NGC 5982 6.4' ESE and spiral NGC 5985 13.8' ESE in the same field!

600/800mm - 24" (5/29/14): moderately bright, fairly large, thin well-defined edge-on, at least 5:1 NW-SE, 2.0'x0.35'. Contains a brighter elongated core that bulges very slightly and the tips taper down. First of three in the striking Draco trio with NGC 5982 6.3' ESE. Also NGC 5978 lies 8' W.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb