William Herschel discovered NGC 2302 = H VIII-39 = h414 on 4 Mar 1785 (sweep 377) and recorded "a cluster of scattered large stars, of various sizes, not very rich; but taking up above 20 minutes." His position was ~20 seconds of RA too large, though his description included the surrounding field. NGC 2299 is a duplicate observation (see notes).

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/1/03): at 140x, this a fairly small group (~4' diameter) of roughly two dozen stars embedded in a large, scattered field of stars. On the west side is a nice quadruple including three mag 10 stars. On the east side is a double and a triple star forming a "V" asterism. Located 7' SE of mag 6.6 SAO 133781. This bright star has perhaps a dozen fainter stars within 3' but this subgroup does not look to be a plausible candidate for NGC 2299 which is more likely a duplicate of NGC 2302.

17.5" 20 stars resolved at 140X, in fairly small group. Not rich but includes some close doubles. The three brightest mag 10 stars form a shallow arc on the west side with fourth fainter star nearby. On the east side is a V-shaped group of six stars with the vertex at the east side. The central portion includes a few scattered stars with a line of three stars on the south side.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb