William Herschel discovered NGC 7243 = H VIII-75 = h2155 on 26 Sep 1788 (sweep 863) and recorded "an extended cluster of coarsely scattered vL stars, in the direction of the parallel nearly; about 16' long." JH made the single observation "a double star in a very loose straggling cl, which more than fills the field."

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/22/84): about 80 stars resolved, rich, fairly large, excellent low power field, includes double star ∑2890.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/12/85): at 83x, 150-200 stars are visible in a 20' field. This is a striking cluster at low power and includes a number of fairly bright stars. On the east side is the nice pair ∑2890 = 9.3/9.6 at 9". The cluster is irregularly distributed into subgroups.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb