[10] NGC 5963 has an apparent visual magnitude of 13.1[1] and is located at a distance of 42 million light-years (13.0 Mpc) from the Milky Way galaxy.

[5][6] It has an angular separation of just 9′ from NGC 5965, but the two galaxies are not physically related.

[5] It is characterized by an unusually low surface brightness and has just a hint of a bulge component.

[11][1] There is a high surface brightness nuclear region with an oval shape spanning ~40″, which forms a spiral sub-system.

Surrounding this is a patchy, loosely wound spiral forming a faint disk.