William Herschel discovered NGC 6830 = H VII-9 = h2052 on 19 Jul 1784 (sweep 241) and simply noted "a cluster of stars." On 17 Jul 1785 (sweep 415), he called this "a L cl of p compressed st, most of the same size, with many adjacent scattered ones." JH made the single observation "fine large coarse cl; fills field. Stars 11...12m, some outliers = 9, 10m." His position is in the center of the cluster.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/8/91): 30-35 stars in the central 5' diameter. Most stars are mag 11-12 and arranged in two rows forming a rough "X" shape. The richest group is at the NW corner and a very faint group is off the SW corner. The brightest star is just SW of the intersection point of the "X". Located 30' N of 4.9-magnitude 12 Vulpeculae.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb