Royal H. Frost discovered IC 2966 = F. 791 = D 266? on a photographic plate taken 5 May 1904 with the 24-inch refractor at the Arequipa station. It's possible that James Dunlop discovered it earlier on 8 May 1826 and recorded "A very small nebula, very bright immediately at the center; the bright point is nearly equal in brightness to one of the minute stars north of the nebula. I do not think the bright point is a star, but a very high condensed nucleus, surrounded by a faint chevelure, not more than 10" diameter. Another very minute nebula precedes it." Dunlop's position is 16' NW of IC 2966 and it may be too faint to have been picked up in his 9-inch speculum reflector (equivalent to a 6" or so), so this identification is uncertain.

Van den Bergh and Herbst included this object as No. 56 in their Catalogue of Southern Stars Embedded in Nebulosity (AJ, 1975), noting that it had a high surface brightness and was equally bright on both the red and blue plates. The maximum diameter on the red plate was 2.4' and the blue plate was 2.6'.

600/800mm - 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): fairly faint, fairly large elongated glow surrounding a 43" pair of stars oriented E-W (viewed unfiltered). This reflection nebula extends at least 2'x1' and perhaps 2.5'x1.25'. Located 22' NW of mag 4.9 HD 103079 (close double COO 130 = 5.2/7.4 at 1.6").

Notes by Steve Gottlieb