John Herschel discovered NGC 2348 = h3074 on 31 Jan 1835 and recorded as a "Coarse loose cluster of about 30 stars, many 11m, one 10m taken." His position corresponds with a mag 10 star in the center of an 8' circular cluster or group.

RNGC calls this "an unverified southern cluster" and neither Lynga, ESO or WEBDA has a listing for this object. Bica et al includes NGC 2348 in a 2001 paper on "Dissolving star cluster candidates"

600/800mm - 25" (10/16/17 - OzSky): at 244x; bright, distinctive group of stars appears fully resolved, ~10' diameter, ~35 stars mag 10-14. A bright mag 9.9 star (HD 54266) near the center is surrounded by starless areas to the west and southeast. The cluster includes some wide pairs with a ~36" pair of 12th mag stars on the east side, but there are no dense regions. The group (or cluster) is fairly well defined and detached in the wider field and the outline is roughly circular. A 4' string of stars ~E-W appears detached off the southeast side.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb