William Herschel discovered NGC 3252 = H III-316 on 3 Apr 1785 (sweep 390) and noted "eF, mE, pL, r." CH's reduced position is 6.5' northwest of UGC 5732, though in the GC, JH noted "CH's reduction of this nebula being affected with a considerable error, Auwer's RA is adopted, after verification." But the GC/NGC position is even forther off in RA (too far west by 2.0 min of time) than CH's reduction.

An accurate position was given in MN, 71, 509 (based on the Greenwich plate to determine positions on the sweep of 2 Apr 1801). UGC does not label its entry UGC 5732) as NGC 3252. See Corwin's identification notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (1/28/89): fairly faint, fairly small, edge-on 4:1 NNW-SSE. A double star ∑1437 = 7.6/10.1 at 32" lies 5' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb