James Dunlop discovered NGC 5986 = D 552 = h3611 on 10 May 1826 and described "a beautiful round pretty bright nebula, about 2' diameter, pretty well defined." Dunlop reported 3 observations and his published position was 5' too far north. John Herschel made 2 observations and first recorded on 28 Jun 1834 "globular, fine object, pgbM, diam 15', composed to distinct stars 13..15th mag, one star 10th mag is eccentric, and 3 of 13th mag in centre nearly." Christian Peters independently found the cluster around 1849 and reported it as new in 1856 (AJ 2).

200/250mm - 8" (6/27/81): fairly bright, moderately large, very grainy. A few stars are visible at the NE edge. Includes one bright straggler.

300/350mm - 13.1" (6/19/82): only a few stars are resolved primarily in the NE region. One brighter star is detached off the east side.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/3/00): this fairly bright globular has a 4' halo surrounding a bright 2' core. At 500x, about 30 stars were resolved including a fairly prominent string along the north side (running ~E-W) and many faint stars in the halo and at the edge of the core. A brighter mag 12.5 star is off the following end.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb