John Herschel discovered NGC 2609 = h3130 on 8 Mar 1836 and observed on 2 sweeps. His discovery description reads "A double star, chief of a cluster 8th class of scattered stars, 6' diam; not very rich or compression. His position matches a bright double star (HD 72425) at the center of the group. RNGC classifies the group as nonexistent (Type 7) although it shows up well on DSS (several mag 12 stars). See Harold Corwin's identification notes.

300/350mm - 14" (4/5/16 - Coonabarabran, 145x): fairly faint and sparcely populated cluster of 12-15 stars in a 6' circle. Most of the stars are arranged in a 5'x2' region elongated N-S. Contains a nice double HJ 4108 = 9.6/10.6 at 20" with a wider and fainter pair (10.9/11.6 at 26") about 2' SE. A mag 9.0 star (HD 72287) lies ~6' W and additional mag 10 stars lie with 10' to the NNW and SSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb