William Herschel discovered NGC 3747 = H III-969 on 2 Apr 1801 (sweep 1096) and noted "eF, S." This is one of 15 far northern galaxies with large systematic errors. A corrected position matching PGC 90149 was published in 1911 using plates taken at the Greenwich Observatory with the 30-inch reflector. Dreyer repeated this position in the notes to his 1912 edition of WH's catalogues. See NGC 2938 for more on sweep 1096 and Harold Corwin's full story in his notes for NGC 3752.

This galaxy is too faint to be included in CGCG or MCG. If this is the galaxy seen by Herschel it is certainly one of the faintest that he ever recorded (B = 16.2). RNGC classifies NGC 3747 as nonexistent.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/18/98): extremely faint, very small, round. Only visible with averted vision for moments although repeatedly glimpsed. Listed as nonexistent in RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb