Ormond Stone discovered NGC 3171 = LM 1-169 in 1886 with the 26" refractor at the Leander-McCormick Observatory. His rough position (nearest min of RA) is 1.4 tmin west of ESO 567-03 = MCG -03-26-032. MCG does not label this galaxy as NGC 3171. The RNGC declination is 9' too far south, so the galaxy was misplotted on the first edition of the Uranometria 2000.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/22/96): faint, fairly small, elongated 4:3 N-S, 1.1'x0.8'. Forms the west vertex of an equilateral triangle with two mag 13.5-14 stars 2.3' NE and 2.5' E. Located 16' W of mag 6.6 SAO 178610.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb