James Dunlop discovered NGC 6031 = D 359 = h3618 on 28 Jul 1826 and described "three very minute stars forming a triangle, with a faint round nebula, about 20 arcseconds diameter in the centre, but none of the stars are involved in the nebula." His position is 5' south of the cluster. JH made a single observation on 19 Jun 1835: "cluster, a small, compact knot of stars 11..14th mag, in a magnificently full field and zone."

400/500mm - 18" (4/5/16 - Coonabarabran, 236x): small, fairly rich cluster with 40-50 stars (with careful viewing) packed into a 2.5' region. The cluster is roughly triangular with vertices on the southwest, east and northeast ends. Contains a tight knot of 4-5 stars within 20". A close double star (mag 11 primary, separation <5") is 1' off the north end. Located 50' WNW of NGC 6067.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb