This galaxy was misclassified as a diffuse nebula in the RNGC and as a reflection nebula in the Sky Atlas 2000.0, probably because it is embedded in the Milky Way.

John Herschel discovered NGC 3882 = h3358 on 3 Apr 1834 and recorded "vF; lE; has two stars in it." His position is just off the north side of ESO 170-011. This galaxy is misclassified by the RNGC as a diffuse nebula in the RNGC and the Sky Atlas 2000.0 lists it as a reflection nebula! I'm not certain where the first misclassification occurred, although Sven Cederblad included it as a nebula.

600/800mm - 24" (4/10/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): NGC 3882 is buried in a rich Centaurus Milky Way star field only 5.3° from the Galactic planevery, a very unusual setting for a galaxy. At 200x, it appeared fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 2'x1', weak concentration. A mag 12 star sits at the SSE edge and a mag 13.5 star is close off the SE end. A faint star barely off the NW end appears to be a very close double. In addition, 4 or 5 fainter stars are superimposed on the unconcentrated glow! Located 2.4' WSW of mag 8.8 HD 102323.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb