John Herschel discovered NGC 6850 = h3806 on 9 Jun 1836 and noted "vF; R; bM; 25"." His single position is accurate. It is very surprising that he didn't notice IC 4933, a fairly bright galaxy just 8' south.

400/500mm - 18" (7/10/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 128x, fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 NNW-SSE, 1.2'x0.5', pretty even surface brightness. Forms a pair with IC 4933 8.0' S but I didn't look for the IC companion.

600/800mm - 30" (11/5/10 - Coonabarabran, 264x): fairly bright, moderately large, irregular halo elongated NW-SE, ~1.4'x0.7'. The central region is broadly concentration then sharply increases at the center to a very small bright core and stellar nucleus. The outer halo has a fairly low but irregular surface brightness. Within a triangle of stars including a mag 12 star 1.9' N.

IC 4933, a face-on spiral, lies 8' S and appeared fairly bright, large, oval 5:4 ~N-S, ~1.8'x1.4'. Sharply concentrated with a very small bright core, increasing to the center. The outer halo shows weak spiral structure (two arms), though they can't be easily traced. A mag 12.7 star lies 1.6' S.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb