This cluster is situated in a rich section of the central bar and a number of clusters are nearby. NGC 1958 forms the northern vertex of an isosceles triangle with NGC 1959 5.5' S and NGC 1950 6.3' SW. A single brighter mag 11 star sits within this triangle at the vertex of another isosceles triangle with NGC 1959 and NGC 1950. A trio of clusters, NGC 1969, 1971 and 1972, lies 5' to 6' E.

John Herschel discovered NGC 1958 = h2864 on 23 Dec 1834 and commented "The second of the group, fig 7, Pl IV. L; F; vgbM." On a second observation he noted "F; R; gbM, 40".

Joseph Turner sketched the field containing NGC 1958 on 21 Dec 1875 with the Great Melbourne Telescope (plate III, figure 29). His sketch clearly shows S-L 460 and 469, though Turner misidentified these two clusters as previous discoveries by Herschel.

600/800mm - 24" (4/7/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x, this LMC cluster appeared bright, fairly small, round, 45" diameter. Increasing the magnification to 346x, the cluster resolved into a couple of dozen very faint, densely packed stars. The 1' halo appeared irregular and mottled as if more stars were just below resolution.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb