James Dunlop discovered NGC 6208 = D 364 = h3646 on 28 Jul 1826 and recorded "A round, faint nebula, about 1' diameter, with three small stars in it; a bright star south of the nebula." His position is 8' south-southwest of the center of the cluster. On 8 Jul 1834 from the CGH, JH logged "A pretty insulated milky way cluster, class VII of large stars; 8' diameter; stars 9...12th magnitude." On a second sweep he called it a "cluster class VII; rich; not much compressed in the middle; more than fills field; stars 11...14th mag but chiefly small."

400/500mm - 18" (7/9/02 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): best at 76x with 27mm Panoptic. Appeared as a 10' cloud of mostly fainter stars which blends into the surrounding field with many stars arranged in an elongated, curving shape. Includes a mag 10 star on the south side, though the majority are 12-13th magnitude.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb