William Herschel discovered NGC 3982 = H IV-62 = h1017 on 14 Apr 1789 (sweep 920) and recorded "cB, quite R. A large place in the middle of nearly an equal brightness; towards the margin suddenly less bright." JH called this object "B; pL; R; nearly uniform, but hazy; diam 25"." His RA is exactly 1.0 tmin too large, but Heinrich d'Arrest measured an accurate position (on 5 nights). Ralph Copeland, observing with LdR's 72" in 1878, noted "definition not good, but feel sure that is a globular cluster."

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/2/92): bright, moderately large, elongated 4:3 N-S, 2.0'x1.5', broad concentration but does not have a well-defined core except for a faint stellar nucleus or very faint star superimposed at center. A wide pair (1.0' separation) of mag 11 and 12 stars lie 3.5' S. Forms a wide pair with NGC 3972 13' NW.

17.5" (4/18/98): 13th magnitude supernova SNGC 1998aq was an easy object within the outer halo.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb