George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 3008 on 25 Jan 1851. On a sketch of the NGC 2998 group he labeled it Eta. Dreyer logged it on 1 Apr 1878 as "pF, S, E, *13-14 1' p[receding]." His offset from NGC 2998 (552" in PA 88°) is close to CGCG 210-039 = PGC 28252, although the RA in the NGC is 12 seconds too large (error carried over from NGC 2998).

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/8/91): very faint, very small, slightly elongated. A mag 15 star is 45" off the west edge and 1.1' from center. Located 9.2' E of NGC 2998 in a group.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/14/12): fairly bright, fairly small, oval 4:3 NW-SE, 0.4'x0.3', sharply concentrated with a very small bright core that increases to a bright stellar nucleus. A mag 16.7 star is at the east edge. Forms the east vertex of a quartet with NGC 2998 (brightest), NGC 3005 and NGC 3006.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb