John Herschel discovered NGC 1708 = h337 on 16 Feb 1831 (sweep 327) and described a "v Loose, pRi, fills field, the largest *10m, mixed magnitudes." The mag 10 star in h's description appears to be 30 tsec further east at 05 03 26.3 +52 52 31 (J2000). RNGC classifies this number as a nonexistent cluster. Walter Scott Houston mentioned this object in his columns of Jan '76 and Sep '89.

400/500mm - 18" (11/26/03): at 115x, this is a huge, triangular group of ~80 stars, roughly 20'x12', extended N-S with the base of this triangle on the south side and the vertex at the north end. Surprisingly, this scattered group is fairly well detached in the field and appears visually to be a cluster. Includes a number of mag 10.5-11.5 stars. The group is unconcentrated and most of the stars are situated along the perimeter with two large starless interior regions (larger one on the south side).

Notes by Steve Gottlieb