William Herschel discovered NGC 3068 = H III-293 on 12 Mar 1785 (sweep 385) and recorded"suspected, eF, eS, stellar. 240 left it doubtful, but showed the same suspicious nebulous which other stars of equal size were free from." His position is 6' N of UGC 5353. Dreyer has a note in the NGC that Auwers' reduction was incorrect due to a error in the identification of the offset star in Philosophical Transactions.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/18/98): extremely faint, very small, round, 20" diameter (much smaller than listed dimensions). A mag 12.5 star is 2.8' N. No details were visible (viewed through thin clouds) and the fainter companion 35" SW was not seen.

600/800mm - 24" (3/28/17): at 260x; fairly faint, fairly small, contains a small bright core, ~15" diameter. The oval halo has a very low surface brightness and appears to extend ~25"x18" E-W.

NGC 3068 is the brighter of a close, interacting pair with NGC 3068 NED1 = PGC 87670 just 36" SE (between centers). The companion was extremely to very faint, round, only 10" diameter at most. Although I couldn't hold this compact galaxy continuously (V = 15.6), it was often visible. There was no sign of a connection between the pair or the long, diffuse tidal tail to the southwest.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb