John Herschel discovered NGC 7281 = h2161 on 5 Oct 1829 and recorded "Large, coarse, not extremely poor, the stars scattered and 10...16m." His position is on a 10th magnitude star at the west end of the group. Sky Catalogue 2000.0 calls it a possible asterism. Although this field is not distinctive visually, JH's position and description fits.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/10/91): about 20 stars in a 4' diameter. A string of three mag 9-9.5 stars is on the north side aligned E-W (separation 1' between pairs) and a pair of mag 12 stars just east aligned N-S (separation 0.9'). Includes two very faint double stars. Neither rich nor distinctive. Located in a rich field so extent difficult to determine and outliers greatly increases diameter and total number of stars. The classification of this group as a true cluster is doubtful.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb