John Herschel discovered NGC 6546 = h3729 on 27 Jun 1837 and noted "the middle of a great and rich cluster in the milky way." The ESO position is about 5' further south.

200/250mm - 8" (8/23/84): scattered group of about 40 stars with 20 stars easily visible and three brighter mag 9 stars on the east side, elongated ~E-W. A mag 8 star is in the field to the NE.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/27/92): bright, large, scattered, 10' diameter. Including three mag 9 stars on the east side, 10 mag 11-12 stars mag and roughly 70 stars total. Between the three mag 9 stars is a very faint, rich group of 15-20 stars. Near the west edge is a faint, very close double. The majority of the cluster stars are fairly evenly distributed with no other dense regions. Situated in a rich Milky Way field.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb