John Herschel discovered NGC 2104 = h2964 on 27 Dec 1834 and recorded "pB, R, vlbM, 30"." His position matches ESO 205-002 = PGC 17822.

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/20/04 - Costa Rica): at 166x appears very faint, moderately large, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, low even surface brightness, 1.3'x0.8'. A mag 12 star lies 5' SW. Easy to locate 29' S of mag 3.9 Beta Pictoris. NGC 2101 lies 22' SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb