John Herschel discovered NGC 5938 = h3605 on 9 Jun 1836 and recorded "F, S, among a crowd of milky way stars. No doubt as to its nebulous character. All that is starry in the field is clearly resolved." His position from this single sweep matches perfectly with ESO 099-007.

RNGC classifies this number as an unverified southern object. As a result, it is not plotted on the first edition of the Uranometria 2000.0 Atlas nor listed in the first edition of the Deep Sky Field Guide.

300/350mm - 14" (4/2/16 - Coonabarabran, 160x): fairly faint, moderately large, oval 3:2 ~SSW-NNE, 1.0'x0.7'. Two stars are at opposite ends of the galaxy; a mag 13.5 star is at the NNE edge and a mag 14.5 star is at the SSW edge. Also a mag 12.5 star [7" double] is just off the south side and a 15th magnitude star is superimposed. Situated in a very rich Milky Way star field with a huge number of mag 13 and fainter stars! Located 33' S of mag 4.1 Epsilon Triangulum Australe.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb