William Herschel discovered NGC 3884 = H III-388 = h977 on 27 Apr 1785 (sweep 403) and noted "vF, vS, r." His position (CH's reduction) is just 3 sec of RA east of UGC 6746. JH recorded "pF; nf a * 7m; Delta RA = 4.5 sec, dist 5'. His offset from mag 7 HD 102243 is fairly close, but his position was 34 tsec of RA too far east. Dreyer used JH's erroneous RA in the NGC, placing NGC 3884 east of NGC 3883, instead of west. This error was caught by Bigourdan but was not corrected by Dreyer in the IC Notes section.

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/25/84): fairly faint, fairly small, irregularly round, broad concentration.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/20/88): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated ~N-S, broad concentration, small faint core. Located 4.5' NNE of mag 7.7 SAO 81978 within AGC 1367.

NGC 3884 forms a pair with IC 732 4' NW. The companion is very faint, very small, very elongated. This system is a contact pair though was not resolved.

17.5" (2/13/88): moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, brighter middle increases to a small brighter core, very faint halo extended ~N-S.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb