John Herschel discovered NGC 1839 = h2768 (along with NGC 1836 = h2766) on 23 Nov 1834 and described as "pB, irregular figure; the following of 2 [with NGC 1836] in field together." On a second sweep he called it "the second nucleus of a binuclear clustering group of mixed nebula and stars."

Herschel questioned, though, whether this object was Dunlop 170, which was described as "a pretty large faint nebula, irregular figure." Dunlop's RA is 1.7 tmin too large and I would assume if NGC 1839 was picked up then so would NGC 1836, just 2.5' W.

600/800mm - 24" (11/18/12 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): very bright cluster forming a striking pair with NGC 1836 just 2.5' W. At 200x appears as a very high surface brightness irregular glo, ~30" diameter, mottled but not resolved. A group of six mag 13-14 stars is off the west side in two short N-S strings. Several fainter clusters are in the field including HS 117 5' SSE, HS 109 6' SSW and S-L 234 6' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb