John Herschel discovered NGC 2338 = h435 on 19 Jan 1828 (sweep 122) and noted a "Very loose and straggling cluster." There is nothing noticeable at JH's (uncertain) position. In 1926, Karl Reinmuth noted (based on Heidelberg plates) "many st, but nothing like a cluster." and RNGC classifies the number as nonexistent (Type 7). Harold Corwin suggests that NGC 2338 is a group of stars ~50 tsec of RA east and 5' south of his position. If a similar offset is applied to NGC 2299 (found by JH on the same sweep), it matches NGC 2302, so this error is quite plausible.

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/3/03): roughly 3 dozen stars in an elongated N-S group, ~8'x3'. Includes a few mag 11 stars, with the rest of stars mag 12-14. Just stands out at 100x as a weak field enhancement and detached enough in the field that a definite border can be traced out. Still this is probably just an unrelated group of stars and NGC 2338 is listed as nonexistent in the RNGC.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb