William Herschel discovered NGC 3473 = H III-67 on 21 Mar 1784 (sweep 181) and noted "a suspected nebulosity reaching from one star to a smaller which is about 2' south of it; 240 confirmed it." He missed nearby NGC 3474. He used III-67 in his 1814 PT paper to argue that this was too unusual to be a pure line of sight arrangement and the stars had formed within the nebula. Heinrich d'Arrest measured an accurate position and noted " bet 2 st 14 and 15m, the brighter one attached to the north limb."

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/22/95): faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 SSW-NNE, 1.0'x0.5'. Unusual appearance due to nearby foreground stars. A mag 12.5 star is attached at the NNE tip 0.5' from the center and the galaxy extends to the SW almost to a fainter mag 14 star 45" from center. Appears unconcentrated with a low surface brightness. Forms a close pair with NGC 3474 1.9' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb