NGC 2044 is situated in the outer portion of the 30 Doradus complex, 16' SW from the central core, and is the central cluster in a 6' diameter Superbubble. Like NGC 2060, this stellar association (LH 90) also harbors a young SNR! The site of SNR 1987A (05 35 28, -69 16.2) lies only 5.5' SW.

John Herschel discovered NGC 2044 between Nov 1836 and Mar 1837 with a 5-inch refractor and listed as #608 in his preliminary catalogue of "Stars, Nebulae and Clusters in the Nubecula Major." His position is ~1' south of the center of this cluster/association (LH 90).

400/500mm - 18" (7/8/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): group of about a dozen stars in a 3' diameter at 171x dominated by three brighter stars in a E-W string. Two of the "stars" in this line are actually compact clusters (BRHT 17a and 17b). The western "star" (HD 269828 = BRHT 17b) has been resolved into 15+ components including W-R star Brey 65 and the eastern "star" (BRHT 17a) into 9+ components. A mag 13.5 star on the NW side is the W-R Brey 57. Another mag 12 "star" just 2' NNW of HD 269828 is also a compact cluster (KMK88 87).

600/800mm - 25" (4/3/19 - OzSky): at 244x; NGC 2044 is a striking group of stars, tiny clusters and weak nebulosity. The 3 main "knots" are BRHT 17a and 17b (separated by 1' E-W) and KMK88 87, which is 2' N of 17b. A few dozen stars are resolved in total, mostly in a E-W stream containing the BRHT pair and fainter stars in a vertical stream at the west end of the group (association LH 90). At the north end of the vertical stream is mag 13.9 HD 269818 (Brey 62), a Wolf-Rayet star and just north of BRHT 17b is Brey 57, an easy mag 13.5 Wolf-Rayet.

BRHT 17a: very bright 20" knot, very clumpy, a few individual stars were barely resolved.

BRHT 17b: very bright 15" knot containing a few stars that nearly resolved, but were too closely packed to resolve in the seeing conditions. One of these is the Wolf-Rayet star Brey 65 (listed at mag 13.0).

KMK88 87: fairly bright, elongated SSW-NNE glow, bright center, 25" diameter. With a more critical gaze, it resolved into a quasi-stellar center (probably 2 or more stars) with resolved stars at the SSW and NNE ends.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb