Located in a field with several mag 11 stars and situated between mag 9 SAO 277806 8' NE and mag 8.9 SAO 27796 4.8' SW. Forms a close pair with NGC 3410 1.8' SE.

John Herschel discovered NGC 3406 = h771 on 17 Feb 1831 (sweep 328) and recorded "pB; 2nd class; R; pgbM; among many stars. His position matches UGC 5970.

C.E. Burton, LdR's observer on 17 Mar 1868, recorded "Suspected to be triple, principal Nucl being double in direction sp nf, B point in p edge of sp part. Neby susp from this p with a 3rd knot in it." On 1 Apr 1878 Dreyer observed the field again, discovered nearby NGC 3410, and noted "preceding one [NGC 3406] pB, pL irr R gmbM. 2 points of condensation, brighter one sp centre..." The fainter northeast nucleus is the merged companion LEDA 93106, though for some reason Dreyer didn't even note the galaxy as double in the NGC description.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/22/95): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE. Visually this appeared as a double system with a very small bright core and stellar nucleus that was offset at the southwest end and a faint extension to the northeast of this core [verified later on the POSS].

Notes by Steve Gottlieb