William Herschel discovered NGC 3197 = H III-966 on 2 Apr 1801 (sweep 1096) and logged "F, S, stellar neb. It is very near and preceding a small star. 300 confirmed it." This is one of 15 far northern galaxies with large systematic errors. A corrected position matching UGC 5500 was published in 1911 using plates taken at the Greenwich Observatory with the 30-inch reflector. Dreyer repeated this position in the notes to his 1912 edition of WH's catalogues. See NGC 2938 for more on this sweep.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/28/89): faint, small, round, even surface brightness. Located almost at midpoint of two mag 11 stars 3.7' NE and 3.5' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb