William Herschel discovered NGC 559 = H VII-48 = h124 on 9 Nov 1787 (sweep 777) and noted "a compressed cluster of some pL and many vS stars, iR, 6' or 7' diameter." John Herschel independently found this cluster on 5 Oct 1829 and described "A fine rich cluster 5' diameter, irregular." He made a clerical error in reducing the PD, which is 1° too far south (error caught by Auwers) and assumed this was a new discovery when compiling the Slough Catalogue. This error was corrected in the General Catalogue (h124 = H VII-48).

400/500mm - 17.5" (11/2/91): about 50 stars mag 10-15 at 220x in a 6'x4' region. Fairly compact and rich with an irregular outline. Includes a thin isosceles triangle of three mag 10 stars with the base to the south. The southeast star in this base is a close unequal double. A number of the stars are arranged in strings including four mag 13-14 stars over haze trail from base to the north. Also four mag 8/9 stars precede the cluster to the northwest in a 10' string.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb