Andrew Ainslie Common discovered NGC 3541 with his 36-inch silvered-glass reflector in 1880 and described a "Nebulous star, B centre." His rough discovery position is 12' north of MCG -02-29-004 and 15' south of MCG -02-29-003. Both of these galaxies are possible candidates. Harold Corwin feels that based on Common's description, MCG -02-29-003 = PGC 33759 is more likely.

Wolfgang Steinicke credits Wilhelm Tempel with the discovery on 7 Feb 1878, but the position and description in list I-31 appears to apply to a couple of very faint stars.

MCG -02-29-003 is misidentified as NGC 3537 in MCG and RNGC (see notes for NGC 3537). RNGC misclassifies NGC 3541 as nonexistent. See Corwin's notes.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/4/02): very faint, fairly small, round, 0.5' diameter. Has a much lower surface brightenss than NGC 3537 14' N. The NGC identification is very uncertain due to an imprecise position by Common and NGC 3541 may apply to MCG -02-29-004 28' SSE. This galaxy is identified as NGC 3537 in MCG and RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb