Guillaume Bigourdan discovered IC 4045 = Big. 307 = K. 2-45, along with IC 4051, on 12 Apr 1891. Hermann Kobold found it again on 8 May 1896 and noted "pF, S, bM, = B307?" Dreyer combined both observations in the IC 2 using Kobold's position.

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/21/90): very faint, extremely small, slightly elongated, very small bright core. Located in the central region of AGC 1656 with NGC 4907 5' N, IC 4040 3' SW and NGC 4908 3' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb