John Herschel discovered NGC 6557 = h3728 on 30 Jun 1835 and logged "vF; R; glbM; 15"." His position in the Cape Catalogue and GC is accurate, but Dreyer made a typo in the NGC and placed this object 50° too far north. The error was caught and corrected in the IC 1 Notes.

RNGC classifies this as an "Unverified Southern Object" (Type 0). it is missing from the ESO-LV, Deep Sky Field Guide and the first edition of the Uranometria 2000.0 Sky Atlas.

600/800mm - 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x appeared moderately bright, elongated 3:2 WSW-ENE, 1.0'x0.7', brighter core. Located 14' E of mag 7.1 HD 15844 and 8.6' W of a 25" pair of mag 10.4/12.5 stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb