John Herschel discovered NGC 3717 = h3348 on 29 Apr 1834 and recorded "pB; S; mE; attached to a star." His position matches ESO 439-015. He made a second observation the next sweep, though his position was 7' too far north.

200/250mm - 8" (5/21/82): faint, small, very elongated ~N-S, thin, moderately large. Located 10' SE of mag 8.5 SAO 179951 and 1° SSW of north Crateris (V = 5.8). Forms a pair with IC 2913 7.3' SE (not seen).

400/500mm - 18" (3/19/04): moderately bright, moderately large, very elongated SSW-NNE, 2.5'x0.5', small brighter core, fades at the ends of the thin extensions. A mag 13 star is attached near the NNE end and this galaxy appears like a dagger attached to the brighter star. Located 7' ESE of mag 9 SAO 179951. Photographs reveal a strong dust lane but this was not noticed visually.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/21/17): at 488x; very bright, large, nearly edge-on ~5:1 SSW-NNE, slightly bulges at the center. Contains a large, very bright central section with a mag 12.5 star attached near the NNE end. A sharp dust lane cuts off part of the central section along the northwest flank, partially hiding the core. Only a very faint, thin strip of the galaxy on the northwest side of the dust lane was occasionally visible. With averted vision the low surface brightness outer extensions (beyond the mag 12.5 star) were visible out to roughly 3.5' diameter. Forms a pair with IC 2913 7.4' SE. The companion appeared fairly bright, round, 0.6' diameter, moderate even surface brightness but with no obvious core/nucleus.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb