Guillaume Bigourdan discovered NGC 86 = Big. 5 on 14 Nov 1884 with the 12" at the Paris Observatory, along with NGCs 79 and 94.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/29/84): extremely faint, very small, round. A mag 13 star is close S.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/19/87): faint, very small, elongated ~N-S. A mag 12.5 star is 35" S. MCG +04-02-010 (incorrectly identified in RNGC as NGC 84) lies 2.2' NNE. Located 4' N of NGC 85 in the NGC 80 group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb