William Herschel discovered NGC 2076 = H III-267 on 4 Feb 1785 (sweep 365) and recorded "vF, pS, irr E, bM, requires attention to be seen."

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/3/88): moderately bright, fairly large, oval SW-NE, fairly high surface brightness but no distinctive core. Several bright stars are nearby including mag 7.8 SAO 150803 8' NNE and mag 9.2 SAO 150795 5' WNW. This is an early-type galaxy with a broad equatorial dust lane.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb