James Dunlop discovered NGC 3680 = D 481 on 7 May 1826 and recorded "a cluster of stars, about 10' diameter, mixt magnitude. This precedes 25 Centauri." Dunlop made 4 observations of this cluster and his position is roughly 10' SE of the center of the large cluster (typical error). On John Herschel's first sweep (h3342) of 3 Feb 1835 he logged "cluster VIII class, 60 or 70 stars 11..13th mag in a compact round space, 10' diameter." His second observation reads: "not very rich but a good cluster; gradually compressed in the middle, large, rich, very scattered, almost fills field, stars 10..14th mag."

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/18/04 - Costa Rica): scattered group of a dozen stars at 105x in 7' but with an interesting arrangement as many of the stars form two intersecting lanes crossing at a right angle. Includes a few mag 10-10.5 stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb