Lewis Swift discovered IC 946 = Sw. VII-37 = Sw. VIII-77, along with IC 944 and 948, on 7 Apr 1888. He reported, "eF; vS; R; p close * foll." and his position is 7 sec of RA too large. Swift found the trio again a year later on 20 Apr 1889 and included them in his 8th list (#76, #77, #78). Dreyer combined the two observations into IC 946.

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 1.5' too far south. Because of his uncertainty, though, it wasn't assigned an internal number or a catalogue designation.

600/800mm - 24" (6/12/18): at 282x; fairly faint or moderately bright, fairly small, 30" diameter, very small bright nucleus. Located 6' NNE of mag 8.1 HD 120877 in the small group WBL 470 with IC 948 4.7' ESE and IC 944 9' WSW. A mag 11.5 star is 1.2' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb