William Herschel discovered NGC 3976 = H II-132 = h1022 on 13 Apr 1784 (sweep 191) and logged "pL, E, pBM, r." JH recorded (sweep 117) "B; E 30° nf to sp; vsmbM to nearly a star. The arms very faint."

Johann Palisa found this galaxy on 26 Mar 1886 with the 26" Clark refractor at the Vienna Observatory and thought it was new. His micrometric position in AN 2782 is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/28/87): moderately bright, thin edge-on WSW-ENE, small bright core is possibly stellar.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb