William Herschel discovered NGC 1582 = H VIII-70 on 3 Feb 1788 (sweep 801) and logged "a cluster of coarsely scattered large stars, pretty rich, 20 or 25' diameter."

400/500mm - 18" (11/26/03): at 115x, appears a very large, scattered field with a number of brighter stars. There are no denser regions of fainter stars to distinguish this as a cluster although the star density drops rapidly to the west (edge of Milky Way?). Most distinctive is a stream of bright stars which extends 20' SW of the cluster's position and includes a number of mag 8-10 stars. The string begins with mag 8.7 SAO 39581 and includes a 16" pair of mag 10 stars as well as mag 8.6 SAO 39578. The classification of this group as a true cluster is doubtful.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb