William Herschel discovered NGC 6548 = H III-555 on 22 Jun 1786 (sweep 574) and noted "cF, S, iF, lE, r." His re-reduced position, with respect to 101 Her, is within 1' of UGC 11115. But CH's reduced position (used in the GC and NGC) was 3.5' southwest of UGC 11115 and close northwest of NGC 6549 = UGC 11114. E.E. Barnard swept up NGC 6548 on 29 Jan 1889, and also nearby NGC 6549 on 3 Feb 1889 with the 12-inch refractor at Lick Observatory. He correctly identified the pair.

The MCG (+03-46-013) misidentifies NGC 6548 as NGC 6550 and the UGC and CGCG mislabel it as NGC 6548 = NGC 6550. NGC 6550 is a duplicate of NGC 6549 instead (see that number).

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/1/89): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated NNW-SSE, sharp concentration with a very bright core dominating a faint halo. Forms a pair with NGC 6549 3.7' SW. The apparent companion lies in the background (3x redshift).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb