Pierre Méchain found M74 at the end of September 1780. He reported his discovery to his friend, Charles Messier, who determined its position and included it in his catalog on October 18, 1780. It is among the first "Spiral Nebulae" recognized; Lord Rosse lists it as one of 14 "spiral or curvilinear nebulae" discovered before 1850.

This conspicuous spiral is a prototype of a grand-design Sc galaxy. Its distance may be about 30 to 40 million light years. It is redecing from us at speed of 793km/s.

Then its spiral arms are about 1000 light years broad. They are traced with clusters of blue young stars and pinkish colored diffuse gaseous nebulae (H II regions) in color photos, and reach out to cover a region of more than 10 minutes of arc in diameter, corresponding to roughly 95,000 light years, or about the same size as our Milky Way galaxy. The nucleus of Sc spiral galaxy M74 is small and bright.

M74 is probably the chief member of a very small physical group of galaxies, which includes the peculiar SBa barred spiral NGC 660, the peculiar Sm galaxy UGC 891 (of a mixed type between spirals and irregulars), and the irregulars UGC 1176, UGC 1195, and UGCA 20.

For the amateur, very good conditions are needed to see more than this nucleus. But if they are given, suggestions of the magnificient spiral arms become apparent in telescopes starting at 4-inch. In telescopes of this size, the nucleus appears quite sharply limited, the diffuse hazy and mottled disk around it can be traced to a diameter of about 6' to 8'. Numerous faint foreground stars are visible in the field around this galaxy. Larger telescopes show the faint spiral arms more and more clearly, and in large amateur instruments (16-inch up), knots become recognizable within and between the spiral arms, which are foreground stars as well as star clouds and nebulae within M74's disk.