Williamina Fleming discovered IC 2165 = Fleming 79 on a Harvard objective prism plate taken in 1898 with the Bache 8-inch telescope.

Based on Crossley photographs, Curtis (1918) reported IC 2165 as, "a minute oval disk 9"x7" in pa 81°. The disc of of nearly equal brightness throughout, but with just a trace of ring structure, and shows slightly brighter along the major axis."

200/250mm - 8" (12/6/80): stellar at low power. Definite disc seen at 220x, bluish, slightly elongated.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/11/86): at 88x appears bright, very small, just non-stellar, slightly bluish color. Takes 360x and appears slightly elongated E-W. No central star visible, fuzzy edges to the bright oval disc. Located 38' W of ∑903 = 6.1/10.8 at 23".

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/28/00): at 220x appears as a bright, compact, high surface brightness disc with a bluish color. Crisp-edged at 380x and slightly elongated but no central star seen (mag 17.9).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb