William Herschel discovered NGC 2395 = H VIII-11 on 16 Mar 1784 (sweep 176) and noted "a cluster of scattered stars." There is nothing at the Caroline's reduced position (or the GC/NGC position), but 30' southwest is this scattered group of stars. Auwers' reduced position is 1° too far south, so he made a reduction error. Still, this is an unusually large error, though the cluster was found only 3 months after WH began his sweeps and his positions are sometimes off quite a bit in his early sweeps. Caroline Herschel also noted a confusion in the sweep record about the offset star -- whether it was 50 or 51 Geminorum, so perhaps there is still an error to be uncovered.

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/22/84): scattered cluster of roughly 50 stars mag 10 and fainter in 15' field, not rich. Visible faintly in the 16x80mm finder. The planetary "Medusa Nebula" (Abell 21) lies 34' SE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb