John Herschel discovered NGC 6811 = h2044 on 29 Aug 1829 and recorded "a double star in the southern part of a fine, large, pretty rich coarse cluster of about 100 stars 11...14m; it fills the field." His position is near a mag 11 star on the southeast end of the cluster. The next sweep (2 Sep 1829) he logged "The centre of the more condensed part of a considerable cluster, 10' diameter, of irregularly scattered stars." His position, though, is about 45 seconds of RA too large. Harold Corwin mentions "Unfortunately, the position JH adopted for the GC carries the RA of the second, and a Dec 10 arcmin further on north. I think he meant to use only the second observation (he notes that the first observation refers to "A double star in the southern part ..."), so the incorrect Dec must be a transcription or typographical error." The end result is the GC and NGC position is 15' too far northeast, well outside the confines of the cluster.

300/350mm - 13.1" (9/3/83): fairly large and rich group of approximately 60 stars including many mag 11-12 stars. A long trail of stars follows and a bright group of stars is WNW. Prominent in 16x80 finder, some resolution with averted.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/1/00): large, beautiful cluster at 100x. The central section is ~8' in diameter, roughly triangular and contains a scattering of ~20 10-11th magnitude stars. There are no prominent members - the brightest star (at the west edge) has a faint companion. Perhaps 85 stars are resolved in the unconcentrated central region (there is nearly a void in the center) over haze. The richest knot of stars is on the northeast side. An isolated 5' tails of stars extends NW and another curving string of stars can be traced 8' to the east.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb