William Herschel discovered NGC 2281 = H VIII-71 on 4 Mar 1788 (sweep 813) and recorded "a cluster of coarsely scattered pretty large stars, pretty rich, the place is that of a double star of the third class." His RA is 1.0 minute too large. The position carried forward to the GC and NGC and modern catalogues including the Lynga Open Clusters Catalog (5th edition) and the RNGC.

By analyzing William Herschel's early "reviews" of bright stars that resulted in the discovery of many double stars, Wolfgang Steinicke recently found (email Oct '16) that Herschel first discovered the cluster on 6 Nov 1782 using his 6.2" reflector.

300/350mm - 13.1" ~40 stars mag 7-13 in cluster, bright, loose. Five double stars are visible including a mag 9.5-11.0 pair at 11" and a mag 11.0-11.5 pair at 15".

400/500mm - 18" (3/13/04): ~75 stars in a 30' region to the south of mag 7.3 HD 49009. A number of stars are arranged in a looping chain. There is a neat kite-shaped group of 6 stars (including two pairs at 10" and 15") in the middle of the chain with a faint star in the center. Scattered stars extend to the south, beyond the kite. The group is fairly bright and distinctive and includes a number of mag 9-10 stars, although there are no dense subgroups.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb