James Dunlop discovered NGC 6087 = D 335 = h3622 on 8 May 1826 and described "a group of very small stars of an irregular branched figure, 15' or 20' diameter. The central part is very thin of stars." Dunlop's position was 8' southeast of the center of the cluster.

John Herschel credited Dunlop with the discovery and made two observations: on 22 Apr 1835 he logged "Cluster VIII class, large, loose, brilliant, irregular figure, fills field, chief star about 7th mag taken." On a second sweep he called it "Cluster VIII; large, coarse, bright, fills field, stars 7, 8, 9, 10th mag; a star about 7th mag taken."

200/250mm - 8" (7/13/91 - Southern Baja): about three dozen stars mag 7-11 were resolved at 63x. Very bright, large, ~15' diameter. The cluster contains several bright stars, including S Normae (Cepheid that varies from 6.1-6.8 over 10 days) and three mag 8-9 stars just south. Many of the stars in the cluster form an arrowhead outline with the vertex at the north end. Also a bright string of stars is off the SW end of the arrowhead aligned N-S. Impressive cluster although there are no dense spots.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb