John Herschel discovered NGC 2037 between Nov 1836 and Mar 1837 with a 5-inch refractor and listed it as #593 in his preliminary catalogue of"Stars, Nebulae and Clusters in the Nubecula Major." The only information he gives (besides a position) is type "Cl" and Mag 8. There is no listing or description in the main CGH catalogue, so along with nearby NGC 2033, it is unknown if Herschel was describing a small knot or a very large field of stars + nebulosity in association LH 81, though the magnitude implies a bright object. NGC 2037 is taken as the small cluster OGLE-CL LMC 605 at 05 34 40 -69 44.8 (2000) by Archinal and Hynes, Mati Morel and Jenni Kay. Harold Corwin remarks this cluster is too faint to have been picked up by Herschel with his 5-inch refractor and certainly wouldn't be described as 8th magnitude. So, the standard identification (given here) is almost certainly wrong.

300/350mm - 14" (4/4/16 - Coonabarabran, 145x and 230x): very small high surface brightness glow, ~12" diameter. Situated with the large stellar association LH 81, this cluster is collinear with a 2' string of mag 12, 11 and 13 stars extending south-southwest. HD 37680, a mag 13.2 Wolf-Rayet star, is 1.8' W.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb