William Herschel discovered NGC 2356 = H VII-6 on 16 Mar 1784 (sweep 176) and described "A pretty rich and compressed cluster of stars." There is nothing at his position (reduced using the offsets given in Dreyer's 1912 "Scientific Papers of WH) but ~15' S is NGC 2355 and Harold Corwin concludes this number is probably a duplicate observation of NGC 2355. His position for NGC 2355 is not good either -- it's 100 tsec of RA too far west!

Based on photographic plates taken at the Heidelberg Obseratory, Reinmuth adds "no Cl north of NGC 2355, in 7h 8m.0 +14d 13' (1860) a loose clustering of st 11... in triangle." At Reinmuth's position (about 1 tmin preceding the NGC position) is a triangular group which stands out pretty well. But NGC 2355 is the best fit for NGC 2356. RNGC classifies the number as nonexistent.

300/350mm - 13.1" (1/18/85): about 50 stars down to mag 14 in a 8'x5' group elongated N-S including a mag 10 star at the SE edge. Rich, fairly compact, a number of stars are arranged in lanes. Located about 7' SW of mag 8.0 SAO 95722.

400/500mm - 18" (2/23/06): there is no cluster at William Herschel's position or nearby group of stars that match his description "A pretty rich and compressed cluster of stars" other than NGC 2355 10' S of his position. Corwin equates NGC 2356 = NGC 2355 (see description for NGC 2355). Also about 20' W of Herschel's position are 15 stars in a 3' arrowhead outline. This asterism is well detached in the field and though not impressive is also a possible candidate. A nice equilateral triangle of mag 11.5-12.5 stars with sides of 1' form the eastern corner of the group.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb