John Herschel discovered NGC 2109 = h2972 on 23 Nov 1834 and recorded "pF; pL; R; vglbM; 80"." On a second sweep he recorded "F; S; R; gbM; 20"." Finally, on his last observation he noted "pF; pL; R; vgvlbM; 35"." His position is accurate.

600/800mm - 30" (10/14/15 - OzSky): at 394x; very bright, large, high surface brightness glow with a thin halo, mottled but too dense to resolve the main 40" glow. A couple of mag 16 stars are visible around the edges of the 1' halo. A mag 9 star is 7' SW. NGC 2096 lies 13' WNW and NGC 2116 is 16' ENE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb