John Herschel discovered NGC 2887 = h3168 on 8 Mar 1834 and logged "F; S; R; gbM; near a bright star." This is the first deep sky object he discovered at the Cape, with his first sweep recorded 3 nights earlier. His position (measured on 3 different sweeps) matches ESO 091-009.

600/800mm - 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): bright, slightly elongated WSW-ENE, 1.2'x1.0', sharply concentrated with a very bright 25" core. Forms the SE vertex of an isosceles triangle with two mag 12/12.5 stars 1.3' WNW and 1.4' NNW. A couple of arc minutes SE is a short string of very faint stars. NGC 2842 lies 1.1° NW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb