William Herschel discovered NGC 1979 = H III-240 on 20 Nov 1784 (sweep 325) and noted "vF, vS, stellar." His position is 13 sec of RA east of ESO 487-024 = PGC 17452. Bigourdan measured an accurate position on 11 Feb 1898 (repeated in the IC 2 Notes).

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/3/88): fairly faint, small, round, bright core, faint stellar nucleus. IC 2138 lies 14' SE and NGC 1964 is 80' N.

600/800mm - 24" (1/1/19): at 260x; moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, 50"x40", very strong concentration (fairly sharp) with a small bright core that increases to the center. A mag 12 star is 1.8' E. ARA 1991, a 14" pair of mag 11.7/13.4 stars is 7' W. IC 2138 is 14' SSE and IC 2130 is 32' WNW. M79 lies 2.5? SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb