William Herschel discovered NGC 3808 = H III-338 on 10 Apr 1785 (sweep 394) and noted "vF, vS." CH's reduction is 10 sec of RA east and 3.8' north of this interacting system.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/15/93): faint, small, slightly elongated 4:3 NW-SE, weak concentration, very faint stellar nucleus. Located 3.5' NNE of mag 9.1 SAO 81939. Forms a close, interacting pair (Arp 87) with NGC 3808A = VV 300b 1' N. The companion appeared very faint, very small, round, very small brighter core.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/20/17): NGC 3808 is the brighter member of a remarkable interacting pair with NGC 3808A 1' N. At 375x it appeared fairly bright, moderately large, oval 3:2 WNW-ESE, brighter core.The beginning of spiral arms extend south on the northwest end and north on the east end . On deep images, the northern arm extends into a tidal bridge to NGC 3808A (and wraps around the companion), but visually the arm only extended roughly half-way.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb