John Herschel discovered NGC 1846 = h2774 on 2 Nov 1834 and logged "B; L; R; gbM; 3'." He recorded this cluster on 4 different sweeps and his position is accurate. James Dunlop possibly discovered the cluster earlier (D 209) on 6 Nov 1826 and described a "very faint round nebula, 45" diameter, preceding a bright star in the same parallel." He made a single observation and his position is 9' SW of center, certainly within the range of Dunlop's usual measurements. Wolfgang Steinicke credits Dunlop with the discovery, but there isn't a bright star "in the same parallel" anywhere nearby to match his description, so I'm skeptical.

400/500mm - 18" (7/10/05 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 128x this young LMC globular appeared fairly bright, relatively large, round, 2.5' diameter, broad concentration, mottled with some weak resolution. A mag 10 star lies 9' SW. Second in a collinear string of 4 LMC clusters with NGC 1844 9' NNW, NGC 1842 11.5' NNW and NGC 1852 21' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb