S-L 617 is the southwestern member of a pair of S-L clusters. At 200x it appeared faint, moderately large, round, 30" diameter. Overall it was larger but with a lower surface brightness than S-L 624 located 3.5' NE. Located ~5' ESE of a mag 7.6 star.

S-L 624 appeared as a fairly faint, compact knot, ~20" diameter, with a fairly high surface brightness. A mag 11.7 star is 1.9' SW and S-L 617 lies 3.5' SW.

John Herschel discovered NGC 2051 = h2930 on 23 Dec 1834 and reported "pB; S; R; gbM; 30"; insulated." His position from a single sweep is accurate.

600/800mm - 24" (4/5/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 200x this LMC cluster appeared bright, fairly small, round, 35" diameter. Located 12' ESE of brighter NGC 2031. Two additional S-L clusters (617 and 624) share the field 8.5' SSE. The cluster is also equidistant from a mag 9 star 8' NW and mag 7.6 HD 37899 a similar distance SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb