John Herschel discovered NGC 3333 = h3288 on 2 Feb 1835 and noted "eF; vS; mE; appended like a tail to a * 15m." His position and description match the edge-on galaxy ESO 376-002.

Swift probably found this galaxy again on 30 Dec 1897 and reported Sw. XI-115 as "eeeF; eeS; R; eF * in contact; sf of 2." His position was only 1' SW of NGC 3333. Herbert Howe has a note in his reexamination of NGC/IC objects around 1900 that "Swift says in a letter that these [Sw. XI-115 and 116] are to be dropped. The former is evidently identical with the h nebula 3333. The '* 15 att' is of mag. 13, and directly south of the nebula." As a result, Dreyer didn't assign an IC designation. Finally, Swift called NGC 3333 the "sf of 2" in the large AN table and "f of 2" in his earlier lists, though its unclear what the other object he had in mind. See Corwin's comments on NGC 3260 for more on Swift's objects.

400/500mm - 18" (3/17/07): faint, thin edge-on NNW-SSE, 0.6'x0.15'. A mag 15 star appears to be superimposed at the SSE end. Occasionally, there is a strong impresssion that a second very faint star is superimposed, though the second point is probably a faint stellar nucleus. Member of a group (Klemola 16 = LGG 213) along with NGC 3347, NGC 3354 and NGC 3358. NGC 3347 lies 40' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb