History

Nebula NGC 6742 was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel on 8 July 1788 and also observed by Heinrich d'Arrest on 24 September 1862. John L. E. Dreyer described the nebula as very faint and stellar. George Ogden Abell then identified NGC 6742 as his 39th planetary nebula (A55 39) on the «Palomar Observatory Sky Survey» (POSS) photoplates in 1955 and then listed it as No. 50 in his list of 86 on the POSS photoplates in 1966 discovered PNs (A66 50). The PN Abell 50 should not be confused with the galaxy cluster Abell 50 (ACO 50) of the same name in the constellation Cetus. ^{[196, 331, 332]}