William Herschel discovered NGC 2856 = H III-713 = h591, along with NGC 2854, on 9 Mar 1788 (sweep 815). He recorded "cF, cS, lE." On 7 Mar 1831 (sweep 329), John Herschel wrote, "Not vF; R; psbM; 20"; the nf of 2, making an isosceles triangle with a * 9m."

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/12/94): forms an interesting similar pair of elongated systems with NGC 2854 3.5' SW. Fairly faint, moderately large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 1.2'x0.6', broadly concentrated. Located 3.5' E of a mag 10 star. NGC 2857 lies 7.3' NNE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb