William Herschel discovered NGC 296 = H II-214 on 12 Sep 1784 (sweep 268) and logged "F, E, preceding a bright star. Appears almost like a brush issuing from the star, but does not join it by a good deal." Although his RA was 20 seconds too large and Dec 1' too far north, it is clear from the description that NGC 296 = UGC 562.

Dreyer used WH's (poor) position to compute the position of NGC 295, found by Ralph Copeland. See NGC 295 for the story on this number. Coincidentally, the computed position for NGC 295 lands on NGC 296! As a result UGC, CGCG, PGC and RNGC misidentify NGC 296 as NGC 295. In addition, RNGC misidentifies UGC 565 as NGC 296.

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/25/87): fairly faint, moderately large, very elongated NNW-SSE, bright core. Located just 30" W of a mag 10 star. Brightest in a group of four with UGC 565 9' NNE and UGC 567 13' NNE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb