William Herschel discovered NGC 3212 = H III-980 on 26 Sep 1802 (sweep 1111, his second to last sweep) and recorded "Three, the place is that of the last [III-981]. The two last [NGC 3212 and 3215] vF and vS."

None of these 3 objects were included in WH's third catalogue as they were discovered just after his 500 discovery limit was reached on the previous object (NGC 3057). JH added III-980 as one of the 8 "HON" objects ("[William] Herschel omitted nebulae") in the Appendix to his Cape Observations. There are only two galaxies here that were measured accurately by d'Arrest and Bigourdan with III-979 = NGC 3210 a single or double star.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/28/89): faint, very small, round. A pair of mag 13.5/14.5 stars at 24" separation is 1' WNW (= NGC 3210). Forms a pair with NGC 3215 1.2' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb