Albert Marth discovered NGC 396 = m 35 on 27 Oct 1864 with William Lassell's 48" on Malta and recorded "eF, S, lE." Harold Corwin notes that a faint galaxy (PGC 99944) is very close to Marth's position (just 5 sec of RA west) with a star superimposed on the north side. RNGC misidentifies UGC 729 as NGC 396. UGC 729 is located 1° S and 2.2 min of RA east of Marth's position!

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/4/97): very faint, very small, slightly elongated. Required averted vision to identify with GSC finder chart but with concentration can just hold steadily. Located 2.1' NNW of a mag 13 star. By a remarkable coincidence, Saturn was in the same low power field just 15' due S! Best view of NGC 396 at 280x with Saturn sufficiently out of field to avoid any glare. Misidentified in RNGC (MCG +00-04-020).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb