William Herschel discovered NGC 636 = H II-283 = h144 on 10 Jan 1785 (sweep 355) and recorded "pB, S, of equal light, r, a star or two visible in it." On a second observation on 10 Sep 1785 (sweep 435) he noted "pB, S, mbM." John Herschel made two observations and reported on 9 Oct 1828 (sweep 186), "pF; S; R; psbM; 20" [diameter]."

200/250mm - 8" (11/28/81): faint, small, round, small bright core.

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/26/92): fairly bright, fairly small, round, bright well-defined circular core, very small nucleus. The faint halo increases diameter to almost 2'. A mag 12 star is 3' ENE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb