John Herschel discovered NGC 3120 = h3225 on 22 Jan 1838 (his last sweep at the Cape of Good Hope) and noted "F, R, gbM, 40"." His position is an exact match with ESO 374-029. NGC 3120 and NGC 2849 were the last two southern objects that JH discovered.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/1/00): fairly faint, moderately large, 1.0' diameter, slightly elongated, weakly concentrated. A 20" pair of mag 12.5/13.5 stars are off the NW side 2' from center. A brighter pair of stars is ~4' SW and the galaxy is nearly collinear with both pairs. A mag 9.5 star (SAO 201047) lies 5.7' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb