NGC 1978 is an elliptical shaped globular cluster in the constellation Dorado. It is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was discovered by James Dunlop on November 6, 1826. At an aperture of 50 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 10.20, but at this wavelength, it has 0.16 magnitudes of interstellar extinction. It appears 3.9 arcminutes wide. NGC 1978 has a radial velocity of 293.1 ± 0.9 km/s.