John Herschel discovered NGC 1984 = h2882 on 16 Dec 1835 and described as "a cluster; a double star in it taken." His position is accurate and he catalogued the double star as HJ 3771 = 11.4/13 at 5".

600/800mm - 30" (10/12/15 - OzSky): at 303x; extremely bright, small, high surface brightness knot of stars, mottled. Several stars are resolved around the edges of the 30" clumpy glow. A nice 4' string of stars begins at the west edge of the cluster and extends to the south-southeast, ending at a mag 11.3 star. No response to a NPB filter, although LMC-N145 is on the southwest edge. NGC 1984 is situated in a very rich region of the LMC with NGC 1994 3.8' ESE and NGC 1967 5.4' NW. NGC 1983, an excellent cluster and star cloud, lies 9' N.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb