Hi Owen,

What a nice group of galaxies. I observed them with my 12" Dobsonian this week, scanning the field at 168x magnification.
I like how different they look from each other.
NGC 3998 very large and bright with a well-defined edge
NGC 3990 smaller but pretty bright
NGC 3977 seems to have a lower surface brightness than NGC 3998.
NGC 3972 almost edge-on with a bright core
NGC 3982 with a bright core, but diffuse outer region.
Additionally, I found two faint galaxies:
UGC 6919 elongated faint smudge
PGC 2505536 small and diffuse smudge visible most of the time at averted vision. It is a background galaxy 1.1 billion light years away from us.

Please find attached my sketch.

Clear skies,

Robin

NGC3998etcRobin.jpg