Albert Marth discovered NGC 2943 = m 178 on 1 Apr 1864 with Lassell's 48" on Malta and reported "F, S ,iR, bM." Dreyer added "f of 2 [with NGC 2941]" in the NGC description. His position is accurate. This is the 4th of 6 galaxies discovered in the cluster on this night (NGC 2944 was picked up a year later).

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/29/89): brightest in a group with NGC 2941 2.2' WNW and a faint companion (MCG +03-25-012) 2.7' NE. Faint, small, oval NW-SE, weak concentration. A mag 15 star is 1' SSE. The group extends one degree E-W and includes NGC 2923, NGC 2928, NGC 2933, NGC 2934 (not seen), NGC 2941, NGC 2943, NGC 2946 and NGC 2949.

600/800mm - 24" (2/15/18): at 375x; moderately bright and large, oval 5:3 NW-SE, ~40"x24", well concentrated with a small bright core. A mag 15.5 star is 40" SW of center and a mag 15.2 star is 50" SE. A 10" pair of mag 13.5 stars is 3' NE. NGC 2943 is brightest in a group (WBL 229) including nearby NGC 2941 2.3' WNW and NGC 2946 6.8' E. LEDA 1523095 1.4' WNW of NGC 2943 (squeezed between NGC 2943 and 2941) appeared extremely faint (V = 15.9) and small, round, 8" diameter. LEDA 3744883, 1.5' E of NGC 2943, appeared extremely faint, very small, 12" diameter.

24" (2/22/14): at 375x; moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, ~40"x27", very weak concentration in then halo the increases suddenly to a small bright core. A mag 15 star is 0.9' SE of center and a mag 15.5 star is 0.7' SW of center. Brightest in a group (WBL 229) with NGC 2941 2.2' WNW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb