John Herschel discovered NGC 3590 = h3332 on 4 Feb 1835 (sweep 543) and recorded "a close, p rich, compressed, oval cluster, somewhat insulated." His position is good.

400/500mm - 18" (7/7/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 228x, this is a small, fairly bright 2' knot of ~20 stars mag 10 and fainter. At 76x this diminutive cluster is set in a remarkable field, forming a triangle with NGC 3603 and the NGC 3579-86 complex (RCW 57) to the south.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb