History

The cluster was probably first noticed by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna, which published it in 1654. But this publication of his work was little noticed outside Sicily. ^[196] The cluster was rediscovered on 12 October 1782 by William Hershel using his little 6.2 inch telescope. He cataloged it as VIII 24 (class VIII = coarsely scattered clusters of stars) and noted: «A small cluster of pretty large white stars.» ^[463] In 1888 John L. E. Dreyer added the cluster with the designation NGC 2169 to his famous «New General Catalogue» ^[313]

In 1931 Per Collinder published his «Catalog of Open Galactic Clusters» where this cluster is listed as Collinder 83. ^[455] The cluster is also nicknamed «37 Cluster» due to its brightest members forming an asterism that looks like the number 37.