IC 2488 was discovered by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille on January 25, 1752, during his trip to South Africa.
For the catalogue, Dreyer used the coordinates obtained by Solon Bailey, who used photographic plates with the 24 inches Bruce telescope in Arequipa.
[7] IC 2488 lies 30 arcminutes west of N Velorum, a 3rd magnitude star located near the False Cross asterism.
Stephen James O'Meara estimates the overall apparent magnitude of the cluster to be 6.0.
The planetary nebula RCW 44 (also known as WRAY 17-31 or ESO 166–21) lies 51 arcminutes to northeast and is probably not related with the cluster.