William Herschel discovered NGC 2983 = H III-289 = h3185 on 10 Mar 1785 (sweep 382) and logged "vF; S; lbM. The (offset) star being at such a distance the PD is marked uncertain." Still, his position on this sweep was just 2' southeast of ESO 566-003. On 20 Mar 1786, he logged "F; vS; large stellar." John Herschel called this galaxy "pB; R; bM; r." and measured a more accurate position.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/28/87): fairly faint, bright substellar nucleus, faint halo 3:2 WSW-ENE. A very faint anonymous galaxy is 5.0' SSW. Located 7.1 SSE of mag 6.7 SAO 177893.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb