John Herschel discovered NGC 3697 = h900 on 24 Feb 1827 and noted "eF; vS; E in parallel." His position and description matches UGC 6479.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/1/95): brightest of three in the HCG 53. Fairly faint, moderately large, very elongated 3:1 E-W, weak even concentration. A mag 11.5 star is 3.6' W and a mag 13 star 1.8' SE. The mag 13 star is on a line midway to a pair of close companions MCG +04-27-044 (HCG 53B) 4.0' SE and MCG +04-27-045 (HCG 53C) 3.3' SE. IC 700 lies 13.9' SSE.

900/1200mm - 48" (3/1/19): at 488x; the brightest of four in HCG 53 appeared bright, large, very elongated 4:1 E-W, 2.0'x0.5'. Strong concentration with a bright elongated core or bar.

HCG 53B: moderately bright, small, round, high surface brightness with a relatively large, very bright core.

HCG 53C: fairly faint, small, round, 25" diameter, nearly even surface brightness.

HCG 53D: faint, small, elongated 5:2 E-W. Easily visible and could hold continuously. Located 38" N of a 12th magnitude star.

SDSS J112853.30+204424.3: extremely faint, small, ~15" diameter, very low irregular surface brightness. Located 1.4' W of HCG 53B at the same redshift.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb