John Herschel discovered NGC 1877 = h2805 on 17 Jan 1838 and described as "a third and very faint nucleus of the nebular group at the southern extremity of the arc-formed cluster. From a figure of Jan 17, 1838 [plate III, figure 6 in the CGH Observations]." See Corwin's notes.

600/800mm - 24" (4/5/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): this is the third in an interesting complex of HII regions and is situated just 1' SE of much brighter NGC 1876. At 200x with a UHC filter it appeared faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, with several stars embedded. NGC 1877 forms the SE vertex of a small equilateral triangle with NGC 1874 and 1876. NGC 1880 lies another 1.5' ESE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb