The background glow of the SMC is relatively bright in this region so the cluster is set over a background glow that seems to extend more noticeably to the W and SW.

DeLisle Stewart discovered IC 1612 = DS 133 = D 26?, along with IC 1611, from a plate taken on 27 Nov 1900 at Harvard's Arequipa Station. James Dunlop probably discovered the pair of cluster visually on 2 Sep 1826 and described "a small double nebula; the following is very faint." His position is just 5' S of the clusters. John Herschel never verified Dunlop's D 26 and Stewart is credited with the discovery in the IC.

600/800mm - 30" (11/5/10 - Coonabarabran, 264x): Second of three clusters with IC 1611 2.4' NNW and Kron 42 2.5' E. Fairly bright, irregular shape elongated SW-NE, ~1.2' diameter. A half-dozen stars were resolved around the edges including two very close pairs! Kron 42 appeared bright, very small knot, ~30" diameter. Contains a very bright core and a small fainter halo. A single mag 12.8 star stood out at the SW edge.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb