Joseph Lunt discovered IC 2621 = HN 106 visually in 1901 with the Cape Observatory 24-inch refractor fitted with an object-glass prism. He noted "a stellar nebula found visually with the 24-inch o.g. prism. Mag 10-11." Williamina Fleming independently discovered it in 1907 on a Harvard objective prism plate taken at the Arequipa station.

400/500mm - 18" (7/10/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): picked up by blinking with an OIII filter at 76x (27 Panoptic) and appeared as a slightly fuzzy bluish "star". Excellent contrast gain using the filter. Situated in the middle of a string of 3 stars with a mag 11.5 star 1' NW and a mag 10.8 star 75" SE. Appears ~0.5 magnitudes fainter than the SE star (giving an estimated V mag of 11.3) but significantly brighter using the OIII filter. Appears quasi-stellar at 228x, perhaps 3" diameter at most. Located 2° SE of IC 2502 = "Southern Pleiades".

Notes by Steve Gottlieb