John Herschel discovered NGC 1793 = h2736 on 24 Nov 1834 and described as "pB, R, bM, 1'." On a second sweep he logged "vF, S, R, glbM, 30", insulated." His mean position (2 sweeps) is accurate.

Pietro Baracchi observed this cluster, along with NGC 1801, on 2 Jan 1886 with the Melbourne telescope. His diagram shows the cluster elongated NW to SE, which matches the DSS image.

400/500mm - 18" (7/10/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 228x, this LMC open cluster appeared fairly faint, fairly small, round, 35" diameter with an even surface brightness and no sign of resolution. A triangle of mag 11 stars is preceding in the field. Forms a pair with NGC 1801 6' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb