William Herschel discovered NGC 2482 = H VII-10 = h474 = h3106 on 20 Nov 1784 (sweep 326) and recorded "a cluster of scattered stars, the stars nearly of a size, more than 15' diam, but not compressed." On 6 Mar 1785 (sweep 381) he noted "a L cluster of scattered stars, considerably rich and compressed; my field is too small to determine the extent of it." Observing from the Cape of Good Hope, John Herschel reported "a very rich milky way cluster, or mass of stars, 10, 11 and 12th mag, diameter 20'. The neighbourhood is rich, but much less so than this cluster." His position is a couple of arcmin south of center.

300/350mm - 13.1" (12/7/85): about 50 stars mag 10-14 in cluster. The bright stars from a "Y" asterism. Located 1.5° ENE of Xi Puppis.

400/500mm - 18" (3/2/08): distinctive group of 80-100 stars at 175x in a 10'-12' field. A long, rich string of stars oriented NW-SE passes through the middle of the cluster with arms or sprays of stars extending outwards from this string. The stars are fairly evenly distributed and similar in magnitude with several close doubles. A mag 8 star (HD 64820) is off the west side of the cluster.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb