William Herschel discovered NGC 2286 = H VIII-31 = h408 on 6 Jan 1785 (sweep 352) and noted "A larger cluster of scattered stars, not v rich." John Herschel made two observations and noted on 4 Jan 1827 (sweep 41), a "Loose L irreg scattered cl of about 100 st 9...15m."

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/20/95): at 100x, ~40 stars within an arbitrary 10' region, elongated N-S. This is a fairly rich group of mostly mag 12 and 13 stars bordered by brighter stars grouped in pairs and trios. There is some concentration with a richer 4' core. A wide pair of mag 9 stars is off the SE side.

17.5" (2/1/92): ~60 stars mag 11-14 in the central 10' diameter. Bright, large, fairly rich though not dense. Richest in a lane running NNW-SSE over haze although the brightest mag 10 stars are outliers to the W, north and SE. There is also a bright lane 15' length oriented N-S located to the east of the main group which includes several wide double stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb