- NGC 1746 (NGC 1750 + NGC 1758)
NGC 1746 is designated as an open cluster on many star charts, but its existence is a matter of debate. On December 26, 1785, William Herschell described two open clusters between the horns of Taurus, the Bull. These came to be identified as NGC 1750 and NGC 1758. These two clusters lie at different distances (2100 and 2500 LY) but, because of their relative positions in the sky, they visually appear to overlap a bit. In my image, NGC 1758 is the small condensation of tiny stars lying near the bottom of the open "V" of bright yellow stars toward the bottom center of the image. NGC 1750 is the somewhat larger grouping of blue-white stars lying above it, roughly in the center of the image. It is currently believed that these two groups of stars are actual clusters and may be interacting. The confusion arises because, on November 9, 1863, the German astronomer Heinrich d'Arrest observed NGC 1750 and described it as a "poor cluster". However, he recorded its position incorrectly, placing it some 10 arc-min north of the correct location. Then, in 1888, John Louis Dreyer mistook this observation as an independent discovery and designated it NGC 1746. So, in reality, NGC 1746 doesn't actually exist, but most star charts haven't been revised to correct the previous mistakes.
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