John Herschel discovered NGC 1950 = h2859 on 23 Dec 1834 and described as "The first of several nebulae running together [along with 1958, 1959, 1969, 1971 and NGC 1972] and forming a very remarkable group, which fills the field with a faint diffused nebulosity. See plate IV, figure 7." His second description reads: "A large ill-defined patch at the lower edge of the Nubecula Major, which is pretty definite here, and very bright." His position (measured on 2 sweeps) is accurate.

600/800mm - 24" (4/7/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): this is the first in a group of clusters including NGC 1958, 1959, 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1986, towards the SE end. These clusters reside in a dense part of the LMC bar with a bright background glow. NGC 1950 forms the southwest vertex of a triangle with NGC 1959 5.5' ESE and NGC 1958 6.3' NE. At 260x it appeared moderately bright, fairly large, ~2' diameter, with a relatively low surface brightness. At 346x, several extremely faint stars pepper the surface of the cluster. A mag 11 star lies 3' E, within the triangle described above.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb