John Herschel discovered NGC 2173 = h3018 on 8 Feb 1836 and described as "pF; R; gmbM; 90"." His single position is accurate.

600/800mm - 24" (4/4/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x this outlying LMC cluster (classified as a GC in SIMBAD with an age of ~2 billion years) appears as a fairly bright, round glow, ~2' in diameter, weak concentration, no resolution. A wide pair of 12th magnitude stars lies 2.4' ENE and 3.5' ESE. NGC 2199 (a galaxy) lies 38' SE, and NGC 2209, another LMC cluster, lies 68' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb