Rev. Thomas Espin discovered IC 1442 in 1893 with his 17-inch reflector at his private observatory in England (no specific day given in his discovery paper). He recorded "haze round some dozen faint stars." His position is about 5' too far northeast and this error was repeated in modern sources.

Cederblad catalogued this object as Ced 202 based on the IC description of "Cl of neb stars", but there is no nebulosity.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/5/94): about three dozen stars in a distinctive curving row oriented SW-NE about 4' diameter with fainter loops at both ends. A mag 9 star SAO 34248 is off the SE and a mag 10 star SAO 34250 is off the NE end. Unconcentrated but stands out well at low power (100x). Located 20' SE of NGC 7245.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb