William Herschel discovered NGC 1342 = H VIII-88 = h301 on 28 Dec 1799 (sweep 1092) and described "a cluster of coarsely scattered large stars, about 15' diameter." His position is accurate.

200/250mm - 8" bright, large, scattered, consists of mag 8 stars and fainter.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/23/92): about 100 stars mag 9-14 in 15' diameter, scattered in chains and loops. Two mag 8 stars off the NE side are probably field stars, a nice double star is at the west end. There are several striking star lanes at low power including a long stream oriented E-W. A line of six stars oriented NW-SE forms the SW side and terminates at an easy double star. The NW end is near the striking double star (10.4/11.2 at 14". The field has a large variation of magnitudes.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb