Lewis Swift discovered IC 944 = Sw. VII-36 = Sw. VIII-76, along with IC 946 and 948, on 7 Apr 1888. He reported, "vF; cE; pS; 3 B stars near following." Swift found the trio again a year later on 20 Apr 1889 and included them in his 8th list (#76, #77, #78). Dreyer combined his two observations into IC 944.

William Herschel made the original discovery of IC 944 and IC 946 on 19 Mar 1787 (sweep 720) and recorded "Suspected, vF, vS, but doubtful." His position is 3' too far south. Because of his uncertainty, though, he didn't assigned an internal number or a catalogue designation. Wolfgang Steinicke mentioned these discoveries in a post to the amastro mailing list on 24 Aug 2013.

600/800mm - 24" (6/12/18): at 282x; fairly faint to moderately bright, very elongated 3:1 WNW-ESE, ~1.2'x0.4', well concentrated with a relatively large brighter core (oval). The halo is very faint and sometimes needed averted for the full extent. Forms a 1.2' pair (NNE) with CGCG 073-086, which appeared very faint, roundish, 20" diameter, low surface brightness.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb