NGC 4027 was discovered by William Herschel on February 7, 1785, who logged it as number 296 in class II, Faint Nebulae. His description (according to his paper "Catalogue of One Thousand new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars") was "pB, pL", though the ncgicproject.org website contains the description "GC, pF, pL, R, rr, st 16".
Nowadays this galaxy is known to be part of the NGC 4038 group at a distance of about 83 million lightyears. Other members of the group are the famous Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038 and 4039) and the NGCs 3956, 3957, 3981, 4024, 4027A, 4033 and 4050, as well as several fainter galaxies with UGC or PGC designations. The group is spread out over an area with a radius of about 5º in the sky. Its center lies about 30' east of NGC 4027. So I guess the group actually should have been called the NGC 4027 group, but I guess the more famous Antennae galaxies won ;-)
The high brightness of the galaxy means it should be visible in telescopes as small as 6", possibly smaller. However, the low declination might make it difficult to see for northern observers. I have only observed it with my 20" about a year ago. I logged my observation as follows:
"At 320x the galaxy is visible kind of as Pacman who's about to eat a star. The galaxy has a reasonably bright nucleus from which emerges an arm that completely detaches from the center. Between the center and the end of the arm lies a faint star. Very impressive!"
As always,
"Give it a go and let us know!
Good luck and great viewing!"
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