John Herschel discovered NGC 744 = h171 on 28 Nov 1831 and logged, "p rich, irr fig cluster of *s 11...13m, 8' dia." Sir Robert Ball, observing on the 72" on 29 Oct 1866, recorded "about 100 stars, more or less, of various sizes, scattered about, two of the 7th and the rest from the 8th mag down".

300/350mm - 13.1" (11/5/83): about two dozen stars in a 7' diameter including several fairly bright stars. The brightest is mag 7.8 SAO 22809 at the NNE edge. Pretty scattered appearance.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb