William Herschel discovered NGC 2527 = H VIII-30 = h488 on 9 Dec 1784 (sweep 333) and noted "a very large cluster of many coarsely scattered large stars." From Sloughon 7 Jan 1831 (sweep 317), John Herschel wrote "p rich; v coarsely scattered; fills field; st 10...15m. RA by working list [marked as uncertain]. He also observed the cluster while in South Africa but his RA was 3 minutes too far west. As a result it inherited two NGC numbers, so NGC 2527 = NGC 2520.

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/7/92): 75-100 stars mag 10-14 in very large 30' loose group. This cluster is fairly bright with two fairly rich subgroups. The central 10' core includes about two dozen stars with a mag 10 star at the NW corner which has three fainter companions within 35". A rich string of faint stars oriented SSW-NNE of length 4' has two mag 10-11 stars at the endpoints. Outliers extend east and west and include a rich elongated group at the NE edge of the cluster.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb