William Herschel discovered NGC 2908 = H III-977 on 26 Sep 1802 (sweep 1111, his second to last sweep) and logged "eF, vS, iF. I also saw it with 300x." Caroline Herschel's reduced position is 3' north of UGC 5152. This was one of 6 galaxies found by Herschel that evening after Caroline discovered that the third list of nebulae submitted to the Royal Society included only 497 nebulae, instead of the intended 500. A few nights later (30 Sep 1802) he made his last sweep for new nebulae and the last three nebulae were found. Not observed by JH or LdR.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/6/02): faint, fairly small, round, 0.8' diameter, low but uneven surface brightness. A mag 10 star is 6' ENE. Located 35' NNW of a mag 6.1 star.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb