George Johnstone Stoney, Lord Rosse's assistant, discovered NGC 2288 on 22 Feb 1849. He noted "5 neb. in one field [with NGC 2289, 2290, 2291 and 2294]. It was labeled Beta on an accurate sketch of the quintet. The positions of all 5 galaxies (computed by Dreyer and repeated in the GC and NGC) are offset 4' too far south and ~9 seconds too far west, though the relative positions are correct. Hermann Kobold measured accurate positions in 1898 at Strasbourg. The RNGC reverses the identifications of NGC 2288 and 2289.

400/500mm - 17.5" (12/19/87): very faint, extremely small, elongated WNW-ESE. First of five in a group and forms a close trio with NGC 2289 1.1' NNE and NGC 2290 1.8' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb