William Herschel discovered NGC 3690 = H I-247 = h896 on 18 Mar 1790 (sweep 951) and recorded "pB, lE, mbM." On 9 Apr 1793 (sweep 1039) he logged "vB, pL, lE near the parallel, but a little from nf to sp." JH reported "B; R; pgbM. Query whether there be not a * excentric towards the south-following side." The "star" may refer to the companion on the south side. On 27 Jan 1852, LdR's assistant Bindon Stoney described the system as "Neb div into two parts, faint appendage np about one dia distant."

Swift also noticed it was double in 1883, writing in Sidereal Messenger IV (p39), "mentioned to all observers as very little elongated. Chancing to run across it with a power of 132, I immediately suspected it to be a close double, which suspicion a power of 200 confirmed. It is probably the closest double nebula known." Swift reobserved the galaxy on 18 Apr 1892 (list X) and noted "vs, close D with [NGC] 3690, suspected with 132, ver with 200". This is nearly identical to his 1883 comments. Dreyer entered Stoney's and Swift's second component as IC 694 -- but did they apply to the same object?

Usually, IC 694 is identified as the southwest component of the interacting double system NGC 3690 and this is likely what Swift resolved in his first observation. But Stoney's earlier observation clearly resolved NGC 3690 into two components as well as picking up the extremely faint 16th mag galaxy (MCG +10-17-002a = VV 118c) "one diameter" NW of the NGC 3690 system. Based on Stoney's observation, it is reasonable to assign IC 694 or IC 694B to MCG +10-17-002a = VV 118c.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/1/95): NGC 3690 is a disrupted, interacting double system (Arp 299). This unusual pair appears moderately bright, fairly small, elongated E-W. The appearance is confusing with two very small "knots" in a common halo elongated E-W (20" between centers). On the west side is a fairly bright virtually stellar "knot", which is probably the nucleus of the brighter member of NGC 3690. There is a small fainter unconcentrated extension on the following end and the two components are not individually resolved. With averted vision, IC 694 was barely glimpsed as an extremely faint spot about 1' NW.

17.5" (3/19/88): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated ~E-W, irregular, mottled appearance. A mag 14 star is superimposed on the west side and an extremely faint mag 15.5 star or knot is involved. This is a disrupted interacting system which includes IC 694.

900/1200mm - 48" (5/12/12): at 488x, the southwest component (VV 118b) of NGC 3690 appeared as a very bright, elongated, irregular knot of high surface brightness. Contains a very bright, quasi-stellar nucleus. The northeast component (VV 118a) is the larger of the merged interacting pair and appeared bright, moderately large, ~1' diameter, small very bright core. A very low surface, asymmetric halo extends on the northwest side of the bright pair. The southwest component is generally misidentified as IC 694, which is described below.

VV 118d/e, probably HII regions, are just 45" NW of NGC 3690 (just outside the halo). Occasionally an extremely faint and small glow popped in this position, 6"-8" diameter. IC 694, ~1' NW of the bright pair, was easily visible as a fairly faint, slightly elongated glow, 15"x12", weak concentration. PGC 35345 (the brighter component of Arp 296) lies 2.6' NE. It was also a direct vision, fairly faint glow, fairly small, oval 4:3 NW-SE, 24"x18", increasing to a very small brighter core.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb