James Dunlop discovered NGC 6318 = D 522 = h3672 on 13 May 1826 and described "an exceedingly faint nebula, about 1.5' long and 1' broad, elliptical in the direction of the meridian, with two or three very small stars in it.". Dunlop made 4 observations and his published position is 18' too far east. JH observed the cluster on 5 Jun 1834 and wrote "cluster VII class. Rich, pL, R, gbM, stars 12...14th mag, not a globular." He gave a very approximate position (nearest minute +/- in RA and arcmin of Dec). In the GC, JH improved the position, but it is still 1.5 minutes of time too large. Gösta Lynga (open cluster catalogue) and NGC 2000.0 repeat the erroneous NGC position.

300/350mm - 13.1" (7/27/84): large, fairly rich group of stars mag 11 and fainter, fairly prominent, elongated N-S. The NGC RA is 1.6 tmin too far east and this cluster is misplotted on U2000.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb