Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered NGC 2070 = Lac I-2 = D 142 = h2941 in 1751-1752 using a half-inch refractor at 8x during his expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. He included it in his 1755 catalogue as Class I No. 2 and remarked "like the former [NGC 104: "like the nucleus of a fairly bright comet] but faint." James Dunlop reported D 142 as "a pretty large ill-defined nebula, of an irregular branched figure, with a pretty bright small star in the south side of the centre, which gives it the appearance of a nucleus. This is resolvable into very minute stars - Figure 4. is a very good representation of the nebula resolved. (N.B. The 30 Doradus is surrounded by a number of nebulae of considerable magnitudes, nine or ten in number, with the 30 Doradus in the centre.)"

On his first observation from the Cape of Good Hope, John Herschel noted "the great nebula; an assemblage of loops." He later discussed in detail, "This is one of the most singular and extraordinary objects which the heavens present, and derives no small addition to its intrinsic interest from its situation, which is among the thickest of the nebulae and clustering groups of the greater Nubecula, of whose total area it occupies one-five hundredth part. For these reasons, as well as because its real nature has been completely misunderstood, and its magnified appearance so strangely misrepresented in the only figure which I am aware to have been made of it as to convey an entirely erroneous impression both of its form and structure; I have taken great pains to give as nearly as possible a perfect representation of it as it appeared in the twenty-feet reflector on a great many occasions, but more especially on the 29th November, 1834, when a 'very careful drawing' was made of it by the eye alone, unaided by any micrometrical measures; and on the 21st and 22nd December, 1835, when the nebula was worked in from the telescope on a 'skeleton' previously prepared by an approximate reduction of the micrometrical measures of its principle stars, forming a chart, with a system of triangles, for its reception and for that of minute stars not susceptible of micrometric measurement, or not considered as of sufficient importance to be so measured. This is the only mode in which correct monographs can be executed of nebulae of this kind which consist of complicated windings and ill-defined members obliterated by the smallest illumination of the field of view; and in which the small stars, when very numerous, can be mapped down with tolerable precision. The following catalogue contains all the stars which I have been able distinctly to perceive within the area occupied by the nebula and nearly adjacent to it... [The catalogue contains 105 stars.] The stars thus scattered over the area occupied by this nebula may or may not be systematically connected with it, either as an individual object, or as part of the vast and complex system which constitutes the Nubecula. In respect of their arrangement there is nothing to distinguish them from those which occupy the rest of the area covered by the Nubecula, in which every variety of condensation and mode of distribution is to be met with. The nebula itself (as seen in the 20-feet reflector) is of the milky or irresolvable kind - quite as free from any mottling or incipient stellar appearance as any other nebula which I can remember to have examined with that instrument. Its situation in the Nubecula is immediately adjacent to two large and rich clusters [NGC 2042 and NGC 2055]. Mr Dunlop remarks that 'The 30 Doradus is surrounded by a number of nebulae of considerable magnitudes, nine or ten in number, with the 30 Doradus in the centre.', of which nebulae he gives a figured representation. For what objects these can be intended I am quite at a loss to conjecture, unless they be the brighter portions of the nebulous convolutions seen without their connecting enbranchments. But with this supposition their relative situations, intensities, and magnitudes in the figure alluded to, so far as I am able to judge, appear irreconcilable."

300/350mm - 12" (6/29/02 - Bargo, Australia): first view of the Tarantula in Les Dalrymple's 12" was early in the evening, very low in the southern sky (20° elevation) and without a filter. Even under these conditions it was a fascinating sight – fairly bright, detailed, 15' convoluted, mottled nebulosity with several striking loops or ribbons which radiate out from the central region. Sweeping in the nearby fields I ran across numerous small knots of nebulosity and small clusters.

10x30mm (1/21/12): I viewed the Tarantula Nebula in a 19" dobsonian (pointed horizontally) and in my IS binoculars. At a declination of -69.1°, the Tarantula just skimmed the horizon from the 9300' Mauna Kea Visitor Center, culminating 1.1° above the horizon! Still with atmospheric refraction, it was obvious in the binoculars. There was too much extinction and seeing effects for much structure in the 19".

400/500mm - 18" (7/8/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): NGC 2060 lies 6.5' SW of the central cluster (R136) of the Tarantula. It appeared as a fairly small knot of nebulosity, ~2' diameter, with about a half-dozen mag 12-14 stars involved (association LH 99) in the glow. A mag 12 "star" on the north edge has been resolved into a very compact cluster by the HST. Studies have shown this nebula contains a compact x-ray source and a rapidly rotating pulsar, indicating NGC 2060 is a Crab-like supernova remnant in the LMC (1998 IAU Circ., 6810, 2).

Hodge 301 is the oldest cluster in the Tarantula (age 25-30 million years) and is situated just 3' NW of the central cluster (R136). It appeared as a coompact 30" knot with a half-dozen mag 13-14 stars resolved over haze.

600/800mm - 24" (11/18/12 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 200x unfiltered, I examined the 30 Doradus cluster = R136 cluster at the heart of the Tarantula Nebula. The cluster is dominated by R136a, a 10th magnitude bloated "star" at the center that would not focus sharply. Surrounding this star was a compact but very rich carpet of dozens of mag 14-15.5 stars packed into a 1' region that were much too numerous to count.

24" (4/5/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): The Tarantula nebula was simply unreal at 200x in the 13mm Ethos with a UHC filter -- better than any photo I've seen and convincingly 3-dimensional, even though I viewed it late so the elevation was only 20°. Although this magnification brought out an unbelievable amount of detail in the loops and ribbons, the main complex fit snugly in the eyepiece field (30').

Naked-eye - at 5th magnitude or so, the Tarantula is obvious from a fairly dark site as a small, fuzzy patch on the eastern side of the LMC, north of the central bar.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb