William Herschel discovered NGC 2089 = H III-270 on 6 Feb 1785 (sweep 367) and recorded "a very faint extremely small stellar nebula; 240 verified it with difficulty, and considerable attention, the night being uncommonly clear." JH did not make an observation but the NGC position matches ESO 554-036 = PGC 17860. Auwers reduced RA is 1 hr too large.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/3/88): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, bright core, stellar nucleus. Collinear with a mag 11 star 1.6' SSE and a mag 12 star 2.8' SSE of center.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb