William Herschel discovered NGC 2026 = H VIII-28 on 5 Dec 1784 (sweep 329) and reported "a cluster of pretty large scattered stars. Not rich." No observations were made by JH or at Birr Castle. Karl Reinmuth, in his 1926 survey based on Heidelberg plates, found "no distinct Cl" and RNGC classifies it as nonexistent (Type 7" with the comment "No cluster".

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/14/99): At 220x, ~30 stars in a 6' region including three mag 9-9.5 stars (mag 8.7 SAO 77440 and mag 9.3 SAO 77448). Most of the stars are mag 11-13. The group lacks any concentration and appears to be an asterism with the three brighter stars drawing attention to the group. However, there is a small arc of a half a dozen mag 13 stars that includes SAO 77448 at the SE corner and a nice clump of mag 13 stars is just south of the mag 9.5 star at the north end of the group. Listed as nonexistent in the RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb