William Herschel discovered NGC 3080 = H III-934 on 1 Apr 1794 while observing Uranus, the "Georgian Planet". It is not recorded in CH's "fair copy" of WH's sweeps and found while the telescope was out of the meridian. His offset from Uranus (I used sky-simulation software for the 1794 position of Uranus) is within 1.5' of UGC 5372. Bigourdan noted the NGC position was 12 seconds of RA too large and measured an accurate position (repeated in the IC 2 Notes).

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/29/97): faint, small, round, 40" diameter, weak even concentration to a slightly brighter core. A mag 13.5 star lies 2.1' WSW. IC 585, located 4.4' SSW, appeared faint, small, round, bright core, 40" diameter. IC 585 is very similar in size and magnitude to NGC 3080 and surprisingly, possibly easier visually due a brighter core.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb