ESO 572-023, located 13' ENE, appeared faint, very small, round, brighter core. I'm surprised this galaxy was missed by Herschel.

William Herschel discovered NGC 3981 = H III-274 on 7 Feb 1785 (sweep 368) and noted "vF, pL, iF." His position is just 1' too far east.

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/16/85): moderately bright, very elongated 3:1 SSW-NNE, weak concentration. A mag 13 star is off the east edge 1.0' from the center. The galaxy forms the east vertex of a rough isosceles triangle with two mag 10 stars 4.2' NW and 5.0' SSW. Member of the NGC 4038/39 (Antennae) group.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/20/17): at 488x; bright, large, very elongated 4:1 SSW-NNE, ~2.5'x0.6'. The central region consists of a bright very elongated bar-like core that condenses to a small brighter nucleus. A fairly thin, straight arm is evident extending north by over 1' on the east side of the galaxy. The counterpart extending south on the west side was more difficult to distinguish from the halo on the south side. A low contrast knot (VV 8b) was visible on the south tip of this arm [1.2' SSW of center]. Vorontsov-Velyaminov interpreted this knot as a companion attached at the end of a spiral arm. A mag 13 star is 1' E and mag 9.8 HD 103615 is 4.3' NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb