William Herschel discovered NGC 3961 = H III-905 on 7 Apr 1793 (sweep 1037) and noted "eF, vS, 300x confirmed it." His position matches UGC 6885 = PGC 37390 although this galaxy was not found by Bigourdan and it was listed as a dubious object by Father Hagen.

400/500mm - 18" (3/5/05): faint, fairly small, round, 0.5' diameter, slightly brighter core. With averted vision the faint halo grows to 40". Situated between a mag 14 star 1' SW and a mag 14.5 star 1.5' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb