William Herschel discovered NGC 5963 = H II-761 on 5 May 1788 (sweep 842) and logged "pF, pS, iF." His RA is 38 sec too small (systematic offset on the sweep) and his dec 3' too small. The NGC position from d'Arrest is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/22/93): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE, brighter core. Collinear with a mag 13 star 0.9' SSE and a mag 14 star 1.5' SSE of center. First in the NGC 5965 group with NGC 5965 8' NNE and NGC 5969 13' SE.

600/800mm - 24" (7/8/13): at 375x appeared fairly bright, fairly large, oval 4:3 SW-NE. Dominated by a large bright core with a much fainter halo that quickly dims to a very low surface brightness. Two mag 13/14.4 stars just off the southeast side are collinear with the core and a mag 15.8 star 2' NW is also on this line. First in the large KTG 63 trio with NGC 5965 9' NNE and NGC 5971 19' ESE. A couple of very faint galaxies are close; PGC 3848996, 2.2' E, was extremely faint (V = 16.2-16.3) and small, round, 8" diameter. PGC 214388, 3' NNW, appeared very faint (V = 15.9), very small, elongated 2: 1 ~E-W, 15"x8".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb