John Herschel discovered NGC 1705 = h2679 on 5 Dec 1834 and recorded "B; S; R; pmbM; 20"." His position (measured on 3 sweeps) is accurate.

600/800mm - 24" (4/5/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x appears moderately bright and large, elongated 4:3 SW-NE, 1.2'x0.9', broad concentration. This galaxy contains a super-star cluster (SSC 1750-A) that appears as a 14th magnitude "star" offset just west of the center. In good seeing at 350x using the 13mm Ethos and a 2x barlow, the SSC was easily visible and generally appeared stellar, though at moments there was an impression it spanned a couple of arcseconds. A short string of four faint stars is collinear to the NW. Located 30' ENE of the bright double star Iota Pictoris (5.6/6.4 at 12"). NGC 1705 is a nearby blue dwarf starburst galaxy at a distance of 17 million light years.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb