John Herschel discovered NGC 2097 = h2960 on 26 Dec 1834 and described as "F, irregularly round, psbM, sf a small group." On a second sweep he called it "eF, S, R; has a star 16th mag in centre." His last observation was recorded as "pF, R, pslbM, 50"."

600/800mm - 30" (10/15/15 - OzSky): at 303x and 394x; fairly faint , moderately large, 45" glow with a mag 14 star involved on the south side. The slightly brighter core of the cluster is very close northeast of the star, but the cluster was unresolved. The field includes a mag 13 star 2' SSE, two mag 11/12.5 stars 3.5' ENE and a group of mag 13-15 stars ~3' NW. Located 17.5' NE of mag 6.9 HD 38511.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb