John Herschel discovered NGC 1736 = h2697 on 30 Dec 1836 and recorded "B; R; resolvable" on his single observation. There is nothing at his position, but Robert Innes suggested h2697 was probably identical to a "nebulous patch north-preceding a 12 mag star", located 1 min of RA west of JH's position. Henize (Catalogues of Hydrogen Alpha Emission Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds, Astrophysical Journal Supplement 2, 1956, p315), also noted LHa N120-8 is "Probably NGC 1736. The NGC description suits the object but the position is 1 minute in error." He reported, "1.4' east-west and 1.9' north-south. It has a slightly irregular outline, is not elongated and has appreciable structure. Two 12.8 mag exciting stars are involved." Eric Lindsay, in his 1964 paper "Some NGC objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud" (IAJ, 6, 286-289), repeated the "NGC position in error and should be 1m [West] where there is a bright round patch of nebulosity not listed in the NGC. This is Henize N8 and noted by Henize to be probably NGC 1736 with 1m error." JH caught several typos of this type and corrected them in an errata list, but missed this one.

Joseph Turner observed and sketch this object on 11 Nov 1876 with the Great Melbourne Telescope. In 1885 Barachi noted, "Small, round, bright, about 202 2 ; edge rather ill-defined, not sharp; sparkling at times; may be a little cluster, but could not make certain with any power."

600/800mm - 24" (11/18/12 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 200x, this is a bright, relatively large, crescent-shaped nebulosity involving 4 stars, ~1.2'x0.8', stretching NNW to SSE. On the east side, four stars were resolved in an 0.8' curving arc that followed the shape of the nebula! The two brighter mag 13.5 stars are on the south end of the string and two mag 14.5 and 15 stars are just north. In addition, a couple of very faint stars are off the southwest side. I didn't compare the view using a filter. Located ~9' E of a 2' pair of bright stars: mag 6.8 HD 31532 and mag 8.4 HD 31576.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb