William Herschel discovered NGC 3215 = H III-981 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." Caroline Herschel's reduced position is ~4' north of Arp 181 = UGC 5643 and UGC 5659.

None of these three 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-981 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 and NGC 3210 is either a star or wide double star.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/28/89): fairly faint, small, slightly elongated. Forms a close pair with NGC 3212 1.2' NW. Collinear with NGC 3212 and pair of mag 13.5/14.5 stars 2.2' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb