John Herschel discovered NGC 3783 = h3354 on 21 Apr 1835 and recorded "pB; R; vsbM; precedes (to n) a * 9m." His position and description matches ESO 378-014.

400/500mm - 18" (4/25/09): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated NNW-SSE, 0.8'x0.6', bright quasi-stellar nucleus. Located just NW of a mag 9.2 that detracts from viewing. This well-studied face-on galaxy contains a very bright, highly variable, Seyfert 1 nucleus (one of the closest) and my observation describes the core of the galaxy. NGC 3742/3749 lies ~40' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb