Albert Marth discovered NGC 2946 = m 179 on 1 Apr 1864 with Lassell's 48" on Malta and reported "vF, S, E." His position matches UGC 5143 = PGC 27521. This is the 5th of 6 galaxies discovered that night in the NGC 2943 group.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/29/89): extremely faint, very small, elongated N-S. Located 6.7' E of NGC 2943 in a group. On a line with three mag 14 stars just SE oriented NNW-SSE.

600/800mm - 24" (2/15/18): at 375x; faint or fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:1 SSW-NNE, 0.6'x0.2', low even surface brightness. A mag 13 star is 2' SSE. Located 6.8' E of NGC 2943 in a group.

24" (2/22/14): at 375x; appeared fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 5:2 SSW-NNE, 25"x10", weak concentration. Located 6.9' due east of NGC 2943 (brightest in the group WBL 229-004).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb