John Herschel discovered NGC 1942 = h2849 on 30 Nov 1834 and described "a star 14th mag, with an eF nebula about it." His second observation was recorded as "very faint. (Cloudy) (N.B. The PD has been probably spoiled by the clouds)". But Herschel's second observation through the clouds has the correct PD and his first was off by ~3'. Robert Innes and Willem van den Bos observed the cluster visually in 1926 with the 26.5-inch refractor at the Union Observatory. They reported it as "A star, 13 mag, with the nebulosity touching it due south about 40" diameter. Probably star is accidental."

400/500mm - 18" (4/6/16 - Coonabarabran, 236x): this LMC cluster appeared fairly faint, fairly small, round, 25"-30" diameter, fairly low even surface brightness. A mag 13.7 star is at the north edge. A mag 10.8 star is 4.5' SE and a mag 10.2 star is 8' ESE. The galaxy NGC 1947 is 17' NE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb